Kingdom Hearts: An Ed, Edd n Eddy Story
by PRIVATE Corp
Summary: When a twist of fate made Double D the wielder of the Keyblade, worlds collide in a way that will decide the fate of the Ed boys... and the other worlds'. Join the Eds as they explore the Cartoon Network universe in search of the Pure Hearted, keyholes, and the missing children of the cul-de-sac while facing off against Heartless and new villains. Second story in the EEnE Project.
1. Act I, Ch 01: Peach Creek, part 1

OK, so the last story I was working on was a dud. Want to know why? It's because the flamers are complaining about all the things that I am getting wrong with it, while I was trying to make an entertaining story. Well guess what? I'm going to be making a true sequel and this time... I am doing my research and if you got something to complain about, contact me personally and I'll tell you what I know. And also... I'm sticking with a formula and the theme that's made _Deadlocked_ up.

For this, I'm going to try my best at doing an Ed, Edd n Eddy/Kingdom Hearts crossover. Yes I am doing this. Now what is going to be different in this one? Well this is my telling of this story so who knows what will happen. I am going to take it easy with the original characters this time, but it doesn't mean that I am not using them. Plus, I am taking some ideas and giving them my twist to it, as with the Eds once they get started with being the Keyblader, Defender and Wizard.

And I am taking three characters from the _Kingdom Hearts_ fan-fic that I have in mind and throwing them in here. I hope that I portray them as the way I hope them to be. And luckily for you all... you won't be seeing them often.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** or anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts**_**. **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** belongs and is copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, and the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter One – A New Day Begins

OOO

It is just another fall day just like any other in the month and years from past times. The cool air all around is making people applying layers to their personnel to warm themselves up for the winter days to come. The leaves are changing their colors from their shades of green to the typical colors for autumn, and the leaves float gently down to their resting place on the ground below. With piles of leaves slowly growing in people's lawns, everyone is getting themselves ready for the cold winter days ahead.

The doors to the junior high of Peach Creek burst open and the students attending the school all stroll out to head home for the day. With the sun overhead in the late afternoon skies, the twelve children that make up one class begin heading towards the direction that makes up their homes in the cul-de-sac. Three of these children drift off from the pack to head off for another part of the town, with the three of them arguing over something as the other nine ignores these fighting children.

Within these nine are three boys that are friends for the longest time. One of these boys is leading the trio with hands in his blue jeans, head hanging low, just barely touching his yellow jacket that he is wearing. Behind this boy is a medium size boy, wearing a brownish jacket over a red shirt and a plaid tie around his neck, and he is wearing a pair of purple shorts with red knee-high socks and blue shoes. Lastly, the final boy of this trio is trailing from behind, wearing a green jacket with two white lines going down both sleeves, a pair of baggy jeans and a pair of black shoes, and he is very tall for his size. The three of them begin to head towards the alleyways for a shortcut to their homes in the cul-de-sac, with the leader kicking a pebble down the route.

"This stinks!" shouted the small boy. "Of all the things to do on our first day back, we got detention on the first go!"

"Eddy, you do realize that using Ed's instant gravy in the teachers' coffee is going to get you in trouble," the medium boy.

"And he wasted some good gravy, Double D," the tall boy noted.

"Well so what? I hadn't got the chance to pull something off since coming back from my bro's place, and I really needed that," the small boy Eddy replied.

The medium boy sighs. "Eddy, you should know the consequences by now," he said. "You can't just go and do something so irrelevant."

"Hey, try putting up with two abusive parents and a brother at the same time, and deal with for years!" Eddy growled. "I could be like you, but I got to be like this, and now here we are."

"Oh Eddy, you know that you now have the cul-de-sac to help you out this time," the medium boy Double D said. "Even so, we are here to help comfort you whenever you need it."

"If you like, you can say at my place," the tall boy Ed said.

"Thanks, but I rather stay at Sock-head's place rather than yours, Ed."

The three continue to walk down the alley in silent now, keeping their thoughts to themselves as they get closer to their homes. Eddy sticks his hands into his pockets and pulls out two yo-yo's he obtained one day and he toss both of the toys down to play with them. Double D watches Eddy play with the yo-yo's with concern, knowing how much the small Ed is going through lately, and he wants to try his best to take care of his friend.

Ed quickly walks up to Eddy and ask if he can use one of the yo-yo's and the small Ed gives the left one to the tall Ed. Ed got the string on his finger and he begins tossing the yo-yo all around, aiming in different directions and missing his friends. Upon one throw, the yo-yo went towards the top of the fence, where it hit a boy climbing over the fence square in the face and knocking him towards the ground. The Eds rush over to the fence and peer over to see if the boy is all right.

The three look over the edge, but all they could find is nothing but grass. They could have sworn they saw a boy climbing over and Ed hitting him, but they could see nothing on the other side. The boys shrug this off, getting back to focus on walking back home, when suddenly Eddy begins calculating a plan in his scheming mind.

"Hey, you know that Jonny went cuckoos after coming back from my bro's place?" he asked.

"Yes, I do remember," Double D replied.

"Well, since we are now good friends with everyone, why not give them some protection against Jonny in case he wants to strike them?"

The three stop in their tracks to allow Eddy's plan to sink into their heads. "Are you saying that you want to do a scam after getting detention and the ordeal we went through during the movie?" the smart Ed asked, a bit disturbed.

"Yes, but things are going to be different this time. Instead of ripping off the others, we are going to help them out, with a low monthly fee of course."

Double D smacks his head. "If there is anything involving money, there's going to be some sure-fire kick-back we're going to deal with here," he mutters. "And plus, once we get the money, we're going to spend it all on just Jawbreakers."

"Did someone say Jawbreakers?" Ed asked, pressing his face against Double D's.

"Eddy, you do realize that we can get Jawbreakers from Kevin. All we need to do is ask him."

"I know, but that's not what we're going for," the small Ed replied. "What I'm thinking is that we could use the money we earn for something really big that it'll blow away the others!"

"And what exactly do you have in mind?" Double D asked, now skeptical.

Eddy pockets his yo-yo that he still haves and replaces the toy with a rolled-up blue paper. He unrolls the paper to reveal the content to his friends. Double D and Ed look at the paper with wide-eyes, seeing all the details on the paper to be finely written out and exact, amaze by how well detailed the object is.

"When you are grounded, you got plenty time on your hands," Eddy said, taking the paper back. "I spent the summer working on this, and man did it take a while."

"Eddy, what exact purpose are you going to do with that?" Double D asked.

"I was hoping to build it and use it to help out the others out to cure boredom!" the small Ed stated. "That way, we don't need to suffer from summertime boredom ever again!"

"Hooray for Eddy's crazy scheme!" Ed shouted excitedly.

The smart Ed lets out a sigh. "All right Eddy, what is your plan?"

"OK, so I was thinking that we can use Ed to protect the others from Jonny in case that he wants to attack them," the small Ed explained. "It's not much, and I know that Jonny's not going to stand a chance against Ed."

"Yeah! I'm a real powerhouse," the tall Ed stated.

"Now all we need to get is some wood and we'll set up the stand in the cul-de-sac," said Eddy, looking at the wooden posts that make up the fence.

The Eds take their time taking down some of the fence posts that they are going to use in their latest build. Ed is carrying every piece of lumber, with Double D guiding the blind Ed to the cul-de-sac and Eddy watching the tall tower of lumber in case it is going to fall. As soon as the trio got out of the alley, Ed begins to sidestep to his right, with the tower leaning to the right. Eddy and Double D rush to help their friend out, but it is too late to save the tower.

As the pieces of wood spread throughout the lawn where Ed crashed, Double D takes out a hammer and a few nails from his ski hat and begins building a stand. Eddy walks up to Ed and begins searching the tall Ed's jacket for a pen that they could use for a sign, only to take out a mustard bottle with a pen inside. The small Ed shrugs upon seeing this and walks up to Double D, who is getting the counter of their stand nail down, and got down in front of the stand to begin writing a message. Ed got up from his fall and begins helping out his friend, adding his hand to the build as the other cul-de-sac kids walk up to their stand.

The kids that live in the cul-de-sac are looking at the Eds' latest scheme with a confused look, remembering that it was months since the Eds pulled off their last scam, which got four of the children badly beaten up and chasing the Eds all the way to Eddy's brother's place. One of the children – a boy wearing an orange hoodie over a green shirt, black shorts, and a red hat worn backwards – approaches the Eds' stand to talk with them.

"So what's the deal here?" he asked. "I thought you guys are giving up your scams."

Eddy looks up from what he is doing to face the boy. "Kevin my friend, this isn't a scam," he said. "This is more like... a service."

"Service?" a blonde girl wearing a blue sweater asked. "What kind of service?"

"Think it as more as insurance, Nazz," Double D explained. "We are starting up an insurance plan that will protect each and everyone one of you from any of Jonny's schemes."

The small crowd is now chatting with each other, each telling a tale about how this boy known as Jonny attacked them without reason.

"So what you are saying, smart talking Edd boy, is that Rolf will be safe from Jonny the Wood Boy?" a tall boy with blue hair asked.

"Indeed Stretch," Eddy replied. "Ed here will give you all the protection you need against Jonny. And all for a small fee of 25 cents a month is enough to keep you cover."

"Sounds like a deal, dudes," said the blonde Nazz.

"Whoa, hold on there Nazz," said the boy Kevin. "Are you certain that this isn't a scam?"

"We're 100 percent positive Kevin," Double D answered. "We are guarantee for protection or your money back."

"Then sign Rolf up!" the tall boy Rolf stated. "Rolf will like to keep the large watermelon-headed Jonny the Wood Boy away from Rolf's animals, as Rolf does not know how to control such a wild beaver as Jonny the Wood Boy."

The other kids look at the tall foreign boy with a confused look, noting the statement he just made.

"Did he really say that?" a small boy asked.

"I believe he did Jimmy," an orange-haired girl responded.

As the sentence brushes away, the small crowd walks up to the stand, where there is a fill-in sheet ready for each of the children's name, and everyone backs away to allow Eddy to look over the list. After giving a few checks of both the list and the children present, he hands the list over to Double D and he reels in Ed in front of the crowd.

"Now how this is going to work that for one day, one of you will get Ed to protect you, and we will help out with other ones," the greedy Ed explained. "We'll switch out for the next day, going down the list to make sure that everyone is cover, and we'll make sure that all of you are protected from Jonny."

"Just remember this though: if you are not protected by us, you need to take precautions for yourself to protect from Jonny," Double D fills in. "You cannot blame us if you got attacked and you were unprotected without us."

The other children nod at this sentence.

"OK, so the first one on the list that's getting Ed is..." Eddy grabs the list to look at the top of the paper. "...Rolf."

"Hello," the tall boy replied.

"Next is Nazz, follow by Kevin, Sarah and Jimmy," said Double D, remembering the list. "That gives you the weekdays of Ed protection. We are figuring how the weekends are going to work, but once we get it figure out, come by here and we'll provide the information."

Everyone in the small crowd is agreeing with what the Eds are offering. They can see that this is not a scam, as they are being serious with this business. All five children reach into their pockets to take out the payment for the service and the crowd breaks up to head for their homes. Eddy places the money into a glass jar, grinning widely as each quarter hits the bottom, as Ed walks up to see the profit they earned.

"So are you ready for tomorrow, Ed?" the small Ed asked.

"Ready as a walrus," Ed replied, flashing a smile.

"That's all I need to hear," said Eddy, slapping Ed on the back. "Well I better get home. My folks are still mad at me and I need to get home on time, or otherwise I'll be deep in trouble."

"And there's this monster movie marathon tonight and I need to get ready for it," Ed stated, pointing to it. "There's one I hadn't seen, and it's the first to play! I don't want to miss it!"

"Well, it seems you two got plans for tonight," Double D said follow by a sigh. "I guess I'll you tomorrow."

"See you later then," replied Eddy, waving to his friend as he and Ed head towards their homes.

As Double D begins to head for his home, he notices a boy walking in the distance with his dog. To the Ed, this boy and dog look very strange, as the boy is wearing all white and has white hair, and as for the dog looks very much like a large wolf. Double D watches them for a bit before turning his attention back towards his home, noting that these two are just new neighbors in the cul-de-sac. The smart Ed makes his way up to the front door, only to check one more time to see the boy and his pet still walking away from the cul-de-sac, and the Ed steps inside of his house to head up to his room.

The boy in white stops in his tracks, tugging on the leash to make the wolf stop, and the boy glance over to Double D's house with an expressionless stare.

OOO

Late into the night at the smart Ed's house, Double D is busy reading one of his science books from his personal collection, studying up a bit in geology for one of his classes coming up. He is interested in getting some information about the rocks that are going to be shown in class, and he flips through some pages to look for the gem section. Once there, he begins looking through the gems that are in the book, only to find nothing on the gem the Ed is looking for.

Double D got out of his seat and walks up to the shelf that is in his room, taking down a box labeled "Rare Findings" and opens the lid to uncover a single glowing object. The Ed removes the object out from the box and holds the small object between two fingers, making sure not to apply too much pressure to break it. The object is a pink oval gem, found one day when Double D woke up from a dream, and it is giving off a strange sensation to the Ed. The boy got back into his chair and he carefully places the gem onto the desk.

"I simply don't understand," the Ed said. "I know this is a real gem, but there's nothing here in this book."

Double D flips to the beginning to check the date of publishing, only to note that the date is very recent. The Ed takes the gem and looks through the pages one more time, trying to find anything to match the gem in his hands. Sadly, there is nothing, and the Ed lets out a heavy sigh of disappointment. He then realizes that he found a gem that is not discovered, so he could send the gem to a museum and earn a small reward.

Double D checks the clock in his room to note that it is getting close to bedtime, so he heads over to his dresser to change out of his everyday clothes into his pajamas. As he opens a drawer and removes his shirt, he begins to feel a rush a pain to his forehead, and Double D clasps his head in response to the pain. He begins to think that this is a headache, but the pain intensifies and the boy begins to feel weak. He starts to stumble backwards, bumping into his bed as the pain overtakes him and his knees weaken him.

Everything around the Ed is swirling, making him sick to his stomach as the headache worsen. He tries to get back up onto his feet, but his knees will not allow him, so he collapses on to the floor and breathing heavily. In the Ed's eyes, he could see flashes of different events happening before him, only these events he has not witness as of yet. He could see himself and his friends fighting off a group of black creatures, several different people and a powerful man with the power of fire. And he could also see a large doorway, all white and there is a shadowy looking man standing in front of it, with two strange boys and a wolf with him.

The pain begins to ease and the flashes disappear, leaving Double D lying on the floor with a small puddle of drool next to his head. He looks towards the puddle and he got up quickly, wiping off his mouth as his eyes are looking at his desk. Sitting on the desk is a person, not specific on the gender, wearing an all black outfit of a hooded cloak, gloves and boots. The hood is up and over the person's head, covering whoever this is from Double D. The Ed finally got back up, allowing himself to get his eyes readjusted to the surroundings as the hooded figure stares blankly at the smart Ed.

"It appears… you know the future," the figure said in a man voice.

"The future?" parroted Double D.

"A future that could be alter, simply by changing a few events," the figure answered. "Do you know what that door next to you means?"

Double D looks to the left, seeing the door that leads out to the hallway. The figure shakes its head no and points to the Ed's right, making him turn to the right. He notices a door on the wall, shocked to see that there was ever such a door in the first place. But strangely, there is no doorknob or keyhole anywhere on this wooden tool.

"There is something special about this door," the figure said, getting off of the desk and walking to the door. "It is believed that this could link to other worlds… possibly to the heart of the universe."

"Other worlds? The heart of the universe?" parroted Double D. "Wait… what does it all mean?"

As soon Double D said that sentence, the figure and the door are gone, leaving the Ed alone in the room. He checks all around, making sure that it is not his imagination and he clasp his head to make sure that the headache is gone. The pain is gone and Double D could see nothing unusual, so he went back to getting into his pajamas.

"That is strange," he said. "I guess I must be tired. All this studying sure makes one see some unusual things."

The boy got himself under his blanket and quickly falls asleep, resting up for another day at school and their first day helping out the cul-de-sac with Eddy's latest scheme to earn the Eds money. On the desk, the pink gem begins to glow, shining brightly under the moonlight.

OOO

The bell is ringing and the children of the cul-de-sac are leaving through the double doors that they entered this morning. They are heading back home from their second day of school, with the majority of them not getting into groove of being back at school, leaving Double D the odd man out. Eddy groans in disappointment about the detention he served today and Ed is keeping a warm smile on his face, as Double D focuses off in the distance.

The Eds could hear some footsteps from behind and the foreigner Rolf wraps an arm around Ed's shoulder. "So rock-headed Ed boy, are you ready to help Rolf in this thing against former Urban Ranger Jonny the Wood Boy?"

Ed returns a nod and Rolf tugs on the tall Ed's neck, dragging him away from the other Eds. Eddy and Double D watch their friend being drag by Rolf to do his service protecting the tall foreigner, as they know they should go help Kevin and Nazz from Jonny. But the two Eds continue their walk towards their homes, as they need to rest from being at school.

"So Double D, what had you been doing over the summer?" Eddy asked.

The smart Ed looks over at his greedy friend with a confused look before focusing on the street. "Well... I, like the rest of the cul-de-sac, got grounded upon returning home, and I got off mine early after working around the house."

"Figures as much," the small Ed interrupted.

"It didn't take me long to get all of those chores done. After careful planning, I got through a month worth's of chores in two weeks, leaving me the rest of the summer to talk with the others and visit a few..."

Double D's last sentence trails off, looking away from Eddy as the greedy Ed gains interest in the topic. He raises an eyebrow upon seeing Double D hiding an embarrass face, getting readings that the smart Ed is hiding something.

"So... what you're saying is that you were visiting a girl?" Eddy asked. "Then why didn't you say so? So is she hot?"

Double D jumps by this remark and he turns to face Eddy with pink cheeks. "Eddy, no! I am not seeing any girls! If I was, they will reject me!"

"Now, now Sock-head, there's no need to hide it," Eddy said, wrapping his hand around Double D's shoulder to bring the boy closer. "If there's something you want to say, then you can tell your old pal Eddy here."

The medium Ed trails his eyes away from Eddy. "Well... you see, I am seeing this one girl, but we want to keep our relationship a secret."

"So you are seeing someone, huh? Who is it? Is it Nazz? Or is it, for goodness sake, Sarah?"

"No! It's someone else! I also promise to keep her identity a secret until the time is right!"

"Come on Double D. We're friends here. You can tell me if you like," Eddy said, now getting desperate to know.

"I'm sorry Eddy, but I just remember that I have some studying to do," Double D replied, coming up with an excuse to get out of this situation.

"Study? Why do you need to study? We got the first week of nothing, so there's no need to study for anything!"

Double D realizes what Eddy is saying, due to that being back at school means that the children need to adjust being back at school and get last minute supplies before any major tests and projects come up. But there is a flaw in the small Ed's protest.

"But Eddy, you do know that we need to get some knowledge in, just in case there is a pop quiz," the smart Ed noted, now playing Eddy's game.

The greedy Ed froze upon hearing that sentence. This is going well for the medium Ed. "And I remember somewhere that the summertime is the time where we lose about two months worth of information," the smart Ed said. "I need to hit the books to make up for the lost knowledge."

"OK, fine, do whatever you please," Eddy stated, giving in. "But one way or another, I'll find out about what you did, and when I do, I'm going to rub it in..."

Eddy did not get to finish his sentence, as he could feel the impact of a ball hitting his head. The small Ed lunges forward, catching himself with all fours upon hitting the sidewalk, as the ball that hit him rolls off down the street. Double D tries to help his friend up, but Eddy quickly jumps up, recovering from his injury, and he looks all around the cul-de-sac for the person who hit him.

"All right, who threw that?" the greedy Ed shouted. In response, both Eds hear the sound of laughter not far off from where they are standing.

Eddy looks behind in anger to find a boy standing in the distance, a gloved hand sticking out towards him and another gloved hand on a wide-brimmed hat that resembles more of a witch's hat. This boy is wearing all black, with a long coattail trench coat over a plain shirt and leather pants. His gloves and boots are also the same black as the rest of his clothing, with the same as the belts going around his waist. There are three purple stripes on the left side of the boy's coat, but the size makes it hard to interpret them. And to the Eds' disappointment, they can not see the boy's face, as he is pushing down his face, concealing his eyes, face and hair off from the curious Ed boys.

The boy in black is flashing off a wide smile on his face, similar to that of Ed's but appears more sinister. "You mind tossing back my ball?" he asked.

The still angry Eddy looks down towards the ground, looking around him and Double D to where the ball could have went off to. Then he looks towards more to his right to find the ball sitting close towards the middle of the street, and the Ed walks up to reach out for the black ball. He gets a firm grip on the black and purple ball and he tosses back to the boy in black with an underhand toss. The boy in black catches the ball with his outstretch hand and he gives the greedy Ed a friendly smile.

"Thanks a lot," the boy replied. "Sorry for tossing it at your head. I was hoping to play with you for a game, but you didn't hear my call."

"Yeah we're busying talking to each other about some business," said Eddy. "Then why don't you buzz off and find someone else to play with?"

"Will do," the boy in black replied, tipping his hat to the Eds as he turns away to walk off, revealing his black spiky hair to the Eds.

Double D walks up to Eddy to study more of this new boy. "He is a very strange new neighbor, is he?" the smart Ed asked.

"New neighbor? I don't remember hearing about anyone moving here."

"Things tend to happen, Eddy. It is how life works. There is nothing that could change it."

"Unless we have some sort of mystical artifact that could alter that," the small Ed pitched.

"And now you're sounding like Ed," said Double D. "And speaking of Ed, we better check up on him to see how well he is doing."

"Oh yeah, we can't forget about the big lug." The small Ed watches Double D getting a head start to where Ed is doing his business. "Hey, wait up! This includes me as well!"

OOO

That day in one of the alleys, the kid in black slowly makes a turn around one corner and deep in the maze-like alley. With his grin still on his face, he approaches another boy his age, only this boy is wearing all white clothing with more zippers all over than standard clothing. The white wearing boy also owns a matty white hair, which is glistening in the sunlight as he hangs his head low. With the boy's back leaning against the fence, arms across his chest and a foot resting against the fence, the appearance makes the boy look like he is thinking about something.

Next to the boy is a strange looking dog, which resembles more of a wolf than a typical domestic dog. This wolf's dark gray fur is all wild, appearing to not be combed in such a long time, and much of the fur is clump towards the neck to make a mane. There are three shades of gray on this wolf, ranging from very dark for the head to normal for the body and light for the paws, underside and tail. And this wolf is being hold on by a chain, wearing a blue collar as the chain is going into the boy in white's hand.

The boy in black lets out a small laugh as he approaches, and the white boy tilts his head up to face the approaching kid. "So... have you found the wielder?" the boy in white asked.

The kid in black stops at where he is at and he grins widely. "Not quite," he replied. "I checked over the area known as the cul-de-sac and nothing."

"Then what do you mean by 'not quite?'"

The black boy let his eyes trail off to the side. "Well... there were these two boys that I found while surveying, and both of them seemed like perfect candidates."

The white boy raises an eyebrow, as he moves his foot off of the wall and begins to walk towards the boy in black. The wolf begins to growl and the white boy tugs on the wolf's chain. "Relax, will you? We won't be in these forms for much longer. Once we find the one who is wielding it, we will be out of here in no time."

The black boy lets out another laugh. "And then we get to destroy this world?" he asked.

The white boy returns a glare in response and the boy in black lets out a loud burst of laughter. "Oh boy, this is great! I got this new spell in mind that I want to try out and seeing how this world is perfect for it..."

"We can't allow for you to get carry with your spells," said the boy in white. "Remember the last time that I allowed you to use your magic?"

The boy in black drops his grin temporary to remember the previous incident. "Oh yeah, now that you mention it," he said. "Our master is still making us do cleaning duty after that."

"Well hold out on using your magic until we are safe away from this world and have the wielder in our grasp," said the kid in white.

The black boy lets out a sigh in disappointment. "Fine. Let's play by your rules," said he. "But I still get to blow this planet up once we find this person."

"Sure," is the white boy's response. He gives a tug on the chain to allow the wolf to get up on all fours. "Let's go. We got some planning to do."

* * *

OK, it seems like I am moving things a bit too fast, especially towards the end. That's OK. Not everything has to be perfect. I am not the best writer in the world and especially not the best on this site, but I am what I am.

So this is just getting things set up for the next chapter, which will, as you know, bring the end of the world and the start of the Eds' journey. Since I know you people had played _Kingdom Hearts_ at least once so you at least know the story (what is of a story). But I'm not taking this story and applying all aspects that are in _Kingdom Hearts_. Just allow me to get through the next chapter and then we'll get into gear.

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. I pretty much spoil the next chapter, but you should already know that. _How_ the world is going to end is a different story.


	2. Act I, Ch 02: Peach Creek, part 2

So I am continuing from Chapter One and this will bring the end of this world. I like to thank you for the feedback and I will like to say that this is thought out more than my last story. Please keep in mind that this is a first time for me writing a _Kingdom Hearts_ fan-fic so allow me to get through this chapter before we really begin.

Again, this is picking up from Chapter One, where we will see the start of the Eds' latest journey, only to who is getting the Keyblade, the wand and shield... you may be surprise in who I choose and there is a good reason for it. You have to get through this chapter to find out my reasoning for this.

Legal Stuff:** I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** or anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts**_**. **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** belongs and is copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, and the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Two – Dawn to Devastation

OOO

The two boys and the wolf are meeting up in the woods, after spending the week surveying the cul-de-sac, with the sun slowly rising up for the new day to begin. The boy in white and the wolf are waiting along a tree as the boy in black approaches the duo with a large smile on his face. The white boy releases his grip on the chain as the black boy is close enough for the two boys to talk a normal conversation. The wolf grunts out something and the boy returns a nod to the wolf.

"I am getting sick of these disguises," the boy in white complains. "How much longer are we going to keep these on?"

"Well judging from what I got from yesterday and this morning, we are able to drop our disguises and finally pull off our mission!" the boy in black stated excitedly.

"It's about time," the boy in white responded, and the wolf lets out a howl in excitement.

The boy in black stretches his left arm out to his side, opening his palm to allow a thin column of darkness to culminate in the boy's hand. The shadows form into a wooden staff, with the top end resembling much like a monk's staff, but there are two dangling tags on the cross arms and a screw underneath the ring to make this end spin. The black boy puts a large smile on his face as he clutches the staff in his hand, gripping onto the tape that makes the grip, and bringing the staff closer to him.

"All right, get yourselves ready!" shouted the boy in black, twirling the staff above his head. As he spins the staff, he brought it lower to the ground before slamming the butt into the ground.

The force of the impact sent out a blast of energy, powerful enough to rip apart the forms of the two boys and the wolf off of their bodies. What lies underneath each one of the disguises is a being that resembles much of the same color as their disguises. The boy wielding the staff is now hovering in the air, as he is a ghost, with a torn dark purple robe over inky black skin. The shoulders of the boy ghost resemble much like flames, as such as the flame that is now burning on the butt of the staff. His face is now entirely black, with no hair under his new wizard hat, two giant yellow eyes, and a wide open smile. And on the ghost's robe is an emblem that resembles a black heart with a thick red outline, with a cross inside the heart that has a thorn pattern on the lines.

The boy in white resembles much like his human self, but his whole body is the same color throughout as a silvery white. All over this boy there are zippers, with zippers taking up where his joints are and other parts of his clothing to look interesting, and there is an "X" in the middle of his chest that is made out of zippers. The only parts of this boy that does not have zippers are his hands, as they are now gloves with a strange pattern on them. And the boy does not have a face anymore, as it is replace with a mask and a wide-brim hat. On the mask, there are no signs of eye holes and the opening for the mouth is another zipper, along with a pattern of a cross with an upside down heart on the mask.

The wolf also got a treatment, only keeping true to its beastly form but only growing up to the white boy's shoulders. Replacing for the gray fur is shades of blue, with patches of fur on the legs, torso and head. This wolf resembles much like a fierce lion, except it keeps much of its wolf appearance with a flaming appearance. The wolf also sports two rows of razor sharp spikes running on both sides of its back, protecting the beast like armor, and the claws for its feet are as sharp as the spikes. And the wolf also has a marking for itself, having this emblem on its back and spiked collar, and also having a shape of a heart in this pattern.

The black ghost tips down his wizard hat and lets out a chuckle. "Oh boy, this is great!" he rips. "I can't wait to pull this spell off. I always wanted to do this for a long time now."

"Just a question, but what crazy scheme are you planning this time?" asked the wolf, now speaking clearly.

"You'll see my hairy companion. What I am going to pull off is a summon unlike you have never seen before."

The other two beings are lost. "A summon? That is your biggest spell?" deadpans the white boy. "You pulled off summons before. How's this different from the others?"

"You know you have a zipper for a mouth, right? So zip it so I can explain," the black ghost explained. The boy in white grumbles something, but the ghost did not bother to reply to the remark. "Now... for this summon to work, I'm going to need to extract the darkness of everyone in this town, and from what I am getting, there is a whole lot of darkness coming from one of the neighborhoods here."

"So what's the result?" asked the wolf.

The ghost begins to think. "I'm not sure," he replied. "I never finished reading the spell to know what it summons."

The white boy smacks his head. "You mean you learned a spell that you don't know its full potential?"

"Pretty much, but I do know how to execute it. So shut up and allow me to work."

The ghost throws out both of his arms, with the staff in hand, and he closes his eyes as the ghost begins to concentrate on the surrounding energy. As he figures out how much he is going to use, he opens his eyes and brings the staff forward and placing the butt on the ground once again. With a firm grip, the ghost chants some words in a foreign language, and the top end of the staff begins to glow a purple light and spin around slowly. As the ghost continues the chant, the top continues to glow brighter and spin faster, as the surrounding area begins to blow a large gust of wind towards the ghost's staff.

Below the three beings, a large summoning formation begins to form, and the white boy and wolf realize that they are standing on something really dangerous, so they rush out of the formation before what the ghost is summoning could rise up. As the wind continues to rush towards the boy, a large amount of shadows is riding the gusts and entering the staff, which is then going to the ground and spreading throughout the summoning formation. The two beings outside of the formation continue to watch the ghost pulling in large amounts of shadows into the staff for a full two minutes before the ghost lifts the staff off the ground and look at the ground below him.

On the ground is the same pattern as what is on the ghost's robe, with a typical summoning formation overlapping the emblem pattern. The ghost flashes a wide smile and he twirls the staff around to make the butt grow a scythe blade. He then takes the blade and cuts the solid ground below him, dragging the blade through the middle of the summoning formation from end to end. At the top, the ghost releases the blade from the earth, rotating the staff around to make the blade disappear and all three beings now look upon the opening that the ghost made.

"So now what?" asked the masked boy.

"You'll see shortly," replied the ghost boy.

The ground begins to rumble beneath the mask boy and the wolf, as the crack in the summoning circle opens wider to allow large hands to come out. These hands push the crack wider and wider, a gigantic black being rises out from the crack and out into the opening. This being appears to be the same color as the ghost's black skin and has the same yellow eyes, but there are no signs of a mouth as there is a scarf covering the lower half of its face and there is hair on this being's head. As this being rises, the body resembles much like that of a body builder, being largely built for such a giant beast as this black monster. And with its stomach now revealing, there is a large hole in the middle of its body, taking shape as a heart.

The masked boy is shock upon seeing this giant black creature. "D-Do you have any idea that y-you were summoning a D-Darkside?" he asked.

The black ghost tilts his head towards the masked boy. "Who?"

The masked boy drops his shock look to replace it with an angry one. "You don't know who Darkside is? What is wrong with you?" the boy shouted. "You're a Heartless and you don't know who Darkside is?"

"I never really did my research on all the Heartless out there," the ghost shrugs.

"Still, he summoned a Darkside, so that gives us a better hand with dealing with the Keyblade wielder of this world and making him surrender," the wolf stated.

"You're right," the masked boy replied. He looks up to the monster that is Darkside. "I wonder why he looks so buff."

"It has to do with the spell," said the ghost. "With the amount of darkness he consumes, the more powerful he gets. And I like said earlier, the amount of darkness in the area is huge, so he looks like this because of that darkness."

The masked boy continues to stare at Darkside before giving the ghost a nod. "All right, I guess we're set. It's time to find that Keyblade and bring it back."

"Then I call riding Darkside," the ghost shouted, shooting high up into the air along the giant black being's back before reaching the head.

The masked boy watches the ghost fly up as the wolf walks up closer to the boy. "I don't get why you, a Nobody, is allowing a Heartless like him to work for us," the wolf stated.

"You do know you're the last Unversed in this universe, correct," the boy responded. "Our master wants us to work together as a team so that we can put aside our differences and work as one unit."

"But should we trust someone like Prankster controlling Darkside in the first place?"

The masked boy begins to think of the situation. "It is for the best," is his answer. "As far as I know, Prankster is the only one that can control Darkside, and I'm pretty sure that he can use it to get us the Keyblade wielder."

"Right," the wolf replied, nodding its head.

"Come on Blitzer, the show is starting and we need to get everything set for the first and final act."

The wolf lets out a smirk. "I like the sound of that," is its reply.

The two beings follow behind the massive Darkside towards the cul-de-sac, where the battle will take place, in what they hope to be, with the wielder of what they are seeking all this time:

The Keyblade.

OOO

Gone is the first week of the school year and the weekend now upon the cul-de-sac, the children are busy playing out in the street, as the three Ed boys are watching in case of a certain boy named Jonny attacks any one of the children. They know that the weekend is not being occupied by someone on their schedule, so all three Eds need to watch everyone at the same time, and Ed is currently playing with himself with a wooden sword in hand, training himself in case of a Jonny attack. Eddy and Double D are sitting on the sidewalk, watching the others play, and the smart Ed is pressing against his forehead.

"Is something eating at you?" asked Eddy.

Double D looks up and he shakes his head. "It's not much, only a headache, that's all," he replied.

"A headache, huh? Then would you like to explain what's been happening this week?"

The smart Ed jumps at this question. "Wha... what do you mean?"

Kevin stops what he is doing and walks up to the Eds. "You know that you were blanking out in the middle of class, feeling very hot, and drooling all over yourself," he said. "We had to take you to the nurse's office for the week and we are worry about you."

"I guess I am not feeling well," is all Double D could say, rubbing his head. "I don't know what is going on, but I think it has to do with these dreams I've been having the past few weeks."

"Dreams?" asked Eddy.

"They're the sort of dreams that feels so real, as if everything around you is a real thing and you can interact with those items," the smart Ed explains. "But... these dreams turn into nightmares, as these black creatures rise up from the ground and walls and attack everyone, a strange door and a cloaked man is standing in the middle of a vast room, and this... this..."

"This what?" asked Kevin.

"... I'm not sure on what it is, but I think it is a weapon of some sort," Double D responded. "It's shaped like a key and it's glowing, along with a shield and a wizard's staff, and I was asked if I could choose between the two..."

The Ed's sentence trails off again and he clasp onto his forehead, feeling a slight pulse of pain. Eddy and Kevin got themselves ready in case that Double D is going to fall again, and Ed walks up, dropping his sword onto the grass so that he can free his hands in case he is needed. Double D release his head, feeling the pain go away and he looks up at the people surrounding him, seeing their faces and knowing that they are there to help him out.

"So... what did you choose?" asked Eddy.

Double D looks down, concentrating on his memories of the dreams. "I chose... I chose..."

"It's time."

The Eds look up to see a teenager standing in the middle of the cul-de-sac, staring down the road and looking beyond the children playing. This teen is wearing a gray shirt with a pair of brown jeans, a pair of black shoes, and his hands are in his jean pockets. His brown hair is very spiky, with a few spikes going off to the right side of his head, and he is standing there without moving a muscle.

"The time has finally arrived," he mutters. "It has finally started. A new age has finally started."

"Uh, excuse me but what are you talking about?" asked Double D.

The teen turns around and looks at the Eds with his expressionless stare. "I'm just saying that the time has finally arrived."

"Uh... what?" asked Ed.

"Don't you see that this is finally our time?" the teen asked. "The dawn of a new age is upon us and we are a part of this uprising."

"You must have something wrong in that noggin of yours," said Eddy. "We're not part of anything and you know it!"

"Oh really now, Eddy? Then will you care to explain what is that towering over the cul-de-sac?"

The Eds look baffled by how the teen knows the greedy Ed's name, all before looking up to see what the teen is talking about. There hanging above the cul-de-sac is a tall black creature, with dark clouds following right behind the giant, and the Eds are looking in horror at such a sight. The teen looks back and he flashes a wicked smile, seeing the giant Darkside approaching the cul-de-sac slowly and steadily, as the clouds above cover the sun and blanket the cul-de-sac in darkness. Everyone stops to wonder what is going on before taking notice of Darkside approaching their homes, and everyone except for the Eds and the teen screamed by what they are seeing.

"What is that thing?" shouted Nazz.

"I don't know, but I'm getting outta here!" stated Kevin.

"Run for your lives!" shouted Rolf. "Armageddon is upon us and the tall creature is after Rolf's animals!"

The Eds look in horror as Darkside in now lingering over the cul-de-sac, hovering several feet high in the air and staring down at the panicking children with two blank yellow eyes. The teen is grinning widely, looking up at the towering giant as he throws his arm out to the side and the Eds look at the teen as if he is crazy.

"Now do you see what I mean?" the teen asked. "There is no hope for any of us if we don't give in to the darkness."

"You're mad!" Eddy barks.

"Mad? I'm not mad? I'm insane!"

The teen lets out a loud laugh as the Eds could tell that the teen they are talking to is now possessed. They can tell simply by his last sentence from its tone, and they could see that the teen's back eyes are replaced by shiny yellow eyes. The three Eds got ready for a fight, with Eddy grabbing a trash can lid to use as a shield, Ed with a fallen tree branch, and Double D with the wooden sword from earlier. The teen grows a wild smile on his face as a column of darkness forms in his hand and he pulls out a katana sword from the darkness.

"En garde!" stated the teen, getting into a battle stance.

The Eds got themselves ready for the fight, holding up their weapons to defend themselves from the teen's katana, and wait for the teen to make a move, but nothing came. The Eds look to see a masked boy dressed in white walking up to them, with several inky black creatures, with large yellow eyes, short limbs, and two antennae trailing behind the boy. They could see that the creatures are coming from the giant and these creatures are staying far away from the boy in white.

"So... I'm guessing you are the ones Prankster is talking about?" the boy asked, his zipper mouth moving up and down.

"Prankster? Who's he?" asked Ed.

"He's the one controlling Darkside all the way up on his shoulder," the boy said, using a thumb to point up. "You can't see him, but if you did, he's not a sight you want to see."

"Hey, watch what you're saying!" the teen snapped. "I can hear you, you know!"

"Yes, but I can easily take over your spell, you know that right?"

The masked boy takes his left elbow and jabs the teen in the hip, causing the teen to stumble before quickly recovering and replacing his yellow eyes with white ones. The teen is standing perfectly still, loosely gripping onto his katana, as he stands off to the side to allow the masked boy to focus on the Ed boys.

"Now allow me to introduce myself, though this is not really necessary," he said. "The name is Zip-fly, and I am going to let the Shadow Heartless take your hearts."

The boy known as Zip-fly motions for the creature known as the Heartless to step forward, getting themselves ready to strike at any given moment. Eddy raises the trash lid to defend himself from any attacks, Double D is gripping onto the grip of the sword and holding the sword in both hands, and Ed is standing calmly, holding his stick as if he is holding a staff. He takes a step forward and everyone watches as he approaches the Heartless and Zip-fly with a confident look on his face.

"You. Shall. Not. Pass!" shouted Ed, twirling his stick and pounding one end on the ground.

"Ed, wrong movie," Double D pointed out.

"It doesn't matter," the masked boy said, taking a hand and morphing it into a katana blade. "As long as I get the Keyblade, your lives are meaningless to our mission."

"Keyblade? What's a Keyblade?" Eddy asked.

"I hear that one of you can wield it," Zip-fly responded, taking his katana hand and moving the blade along the street. "All I wonder is which one of you possesses it."

"Well, it's not one of us!" Eddy boldly stated.

"Isn't it? Well, I guess we'll just find out. Sic them."

The Shadows and the teen got the command in their heads and they make their move towards the Eds. Eddy and Double D got themselves ready, with Eddy tying a yo-yo to his trash lid to use a large yo-yo and Double D raising his sword to defend himself and his friends. Ed, on the other hand, takes a few steps back and got his staff ready to knock back any Heartless that is going to strike the boys. And, on cue, the Heartless make their move, running towards the Eds as fast as they could, and Eddy tosses his trash lid at the Shadows, slicing right through the creatures and making them disappear.

As the lid returns to Eddy, the teen makes a move to the Eds, katana now firmly gripped, and he got the blade ready to strike. Double D takes his wooden sword and got it to block the swing, allowing the wood to catch the blade and prevent the blade from going any further. The teen pulls back on the blade and tries again, this time being stop by Ed's stick and achieving the same effect as the sword. Zip-fly watches the battle from the side, seeing both sides are in a stalemate, as the wolf known as Blitzer walks up to the masked boy.

"Hey Zip-fly, I'm getting the scent of a Pure Hearted nearby," Blitzer woofs.

The masked boy looks back at the blue wolf, only to catch of a glimpse of the Eds coming in his direction and got himself to defend with both hands as katanas. "Where?"

"It's somewhere nearby," Blitzer replied, getting a few sniffs in. "A female teen only a few yards away, by what I am getting."

"Seek her out," Zip-fly said, kicking Eddy back. "Once we get her, we'll go after the Keyblader and send this world into oblivion."

"Will do," the wolf said as he sprints away from the battlefield.

"Oh no you don't!" shouted Eddy, taking his make-shift shield and tossing it towards Blitzer.

The possessed teen sprints towards the shield and knocks it back with his katana, sending the trash lid back to Eddy and allowing the wolf to escape. Eddy growls as Blitzer got farther away, and the Eds lay their eyes on the teen that once helped them before, getting themselves ready once again for another assault, but the teen takes a step back and lowers his katana. The Eds look in confusion as the puppeteer, Zip-fly, steps forward and dismisses the teen from the battle.

"You have done well Ed boys," he said, "but it appears that the Keyblade has not chosen its master yet. I know it is one of you three – a wielder of strength, a wielder of defense, and a wielder of magic – and I must find out who it is right... now!"

Zip-fly motions for the teen to strike again, this time charging with the katana aiming directly at Eddy. The small Ed raises his trash lid for the attack, but he knows that the blade is going to pierce right through the lid, so he closes his eyes and wait for the blow. He waits for a few seconds, but there is no pain going through his body, so he opens one of his eyes to notice an astonishing sight before him. There standing in front of him is none of than Double D, using his make-shift sword to block the possessed teen's attack and save the small Ed.

But then Eddy notices something strange: Double D is not wielding the same sword from before. Instead, he is wielding a metallic sword of some sort, resembling much like a large key, with a silver shaft and the teeth resembling a crown. The hilt is yellow in color, wrapping around the blue handle that Double D is gripping, and the Ed could notice that there is a keychain dangling at the end, with the very end resembling an iconic image. Everyone wide-eyes what Double D is holding and the smart Ed pushes back the possessed teen with a good push to allow him to notice the weapon in his hand.

"What is this?" he ponders out loud. "I have never seen such a sword before in my life."

_Kingdom Key_

Double D looks all around him, trying to find the source of whoever made the statement. After finding no sign of the person, the Ed notices the teen charging at them once again, but Eddy steps in this time and knocks the katana away as Double D regains focus on the battle beforehand. The smart Ed notices a Heartless heading towards the Eds and he takes a swing at the lonely Shadow, cutting right through the middle and making the Heartless disappear, leaving only a faint heart to float up into the sky.

"What did I...?" Double D asked.

"That's it! That's the Keyblade!" Zip-fly stated.

"Keyblade?" echoed Eddy once again, before realizing what Double D is holding in his hand.

The ghost known as Prankster is busy dancing on top of Darkside, using his magic to summon up more Heartless as Darkside continues to tower over the cul-de-sac. The ghost catches a glimpse of something shiny towards the ground and he looks down to see that Double D is holding the very thing the three beings are after, and the ghost lets out a loud laugh. He eyes towards the ground and he grips onto his staff, grinning wide as he stares down at the Keyblade.

"Oh boy, this is great! They got the Keyblade, just as I predicted," the ghost said out loud. "So all we need to do now is get the Keyblade and we are done on this world."

The ghost grows a devious smile and he tips down his hat to conceal his yellow eyes. He begins to come up with a plan as more and more Heartless appear on the ground below and rushing towards the boy wielding the Keyblade. Now with the new weapon in hand, Double D uses his Keyblade, the Kingdom Key, to cut down the Heartless that attack his friends, and defend off the possessed teen. Then, with one blow, Double D uses his Keyblade to knock back the teen a few feet and make him drop his katana.

"You're good at that," Ed pointed out.

"Why, thank you Ed," replied Double D, using his Keyblade to repel a stab from a passing Shadow.

Zip-fly is getting annoyed by the turn of the situation, noting that the Keyblader wielder is already mastering a weapon he has yet to train under and defeating not only the Heartless and the teen. The masked boy watches as the Heartless are dropping like flies as the Eds cut through each one of them one by one, and the anger inside of Zip-fly is reaching its maximum.

"I am getting sick of this!" he growls. The masked boy rushes towards where the Eds are fighting, morphing both of his hands into katana blades, and he jumps up to use the possessed teen as a launching pad to shoot towards the Eds in rage. "Prepare to die!"

The masked boy got both of his katana blades ready to slice through all three Eds, but before he could strike, a bolt of lightning shoots from the skies and strike down on Zip-fly. The boy in white is jumping all around from the amount of electricity entering his body, which is causing the possessed teen to snap out of the spell and realize what is going on. As soon as the lightning calms down and Zip-fly is lying on the ground, everyone looks to see what made the lightning struck all of a sudden, and they notice Ed is gripping onto his stick very hard.

"Ed... did you just..." Double D said, before his sentence trails off.

Ed looks up and he turns to his friend with a warm smile. "It's a trick I learned from somewhere," he replied.

"Who knew playing those video games will finally pay off?" said Eddy.

Ed keeps his smile on his face for briefly as they look towards the towering Darkside. They know the giant is pumping out the Heartless and the only way to stop the waves of Heartless is to take down the giant. The three boys got themselves ready for the climb, but as they take the first step, a burned Zip-fly got back up on his feet; hands still katanas and is very mad at the Eds.

"You really think some measly Thundara spell is going to stop a Nobody like me?" he roars. "You're going to need much more than that if you want to take me down!"

"Come on! That was a lightning bolt!" Eddy stated. "There's no chance that you can survive that!"

"Again, I am a Nobody, not some measly human like you are. I am much higher up than my fellow Nobodies, and I am not going to allow some low-lives like you to defeat us in our mission!"

The masked boy once again makes an attempt to strike at the Eds again, but his attack is cut short due to the teen's katana getting in the middle of the attack. Zip-fly notices that the teen is standing right in front of

"What are you doing?" he shouted. "I should be controlling you and you have free will?"

"I am not going to allow you to hurt them," the teen said, pulling his sword away. "They are my fight, not yours. If you want to fight them, do it on your terms."

Zip-fly growls and mutters something under his breath, taking a few steps to recover from his recent injuries. The teen stares at Zip-fly for a bit before letting out a sigh, dropping his katana and then collapsing onto the ground. Double D rushes to help the teen get back on his feet, but the teen is tired from fighting and there are Heartless looking at the two ravenously. Eddy steps in and slices through the Heartless using his trash lid, providing cover as Double D checks out the teen.

"You know you shouldn't do this," the teen said, letting out a smirk.

"I am willing to help out anyone that protects us," the smart Ed replied.

"Well... if there is one thing you must do... please protect her."

"Her? Who's her?"

No response. Double D checks the teen's neck, and he could feel a pulse. The teen is still alive, but he is too tired to move from the spot. The smart Ed got back up on his feet and he looks out to see more and more Heartless appearing, all hungry for hearts, and the three boys grip onto their weapons of choice for the fight ahead.

"Well... I guess if we are going down, it's best we go out fighting," said Eddy.

"Classic words true to this very scene," said Double D. "I couldn't say them better than myself."

"Gravy," is Ed's response.

"Well now, things look like they are wrapping up here. So I guess... it's time to end this battle!" Prankster shouted, throwing his arms out wide.

Gripping onto his staff, the ghost twirls the wooden staff above his head before slamming the flaming butt into Darkside's neck and causing the giant to unleash a mighty roar. With the small flame causing intense pain inside Darkside, the giant reaches up with one of his hands to send it straight down on the ground. The impact creates a large pool of shadows, covering every inch of the cul-de-sac and the surrounding area, and everything trapped in the pool is getting suck into the center. The children that got caught in the battle begin to slip towards the center, with those not holding on to their surroundings falling into the center and disappearing into the shadows.

Ed watches in horror as his sister Sarah falls into the core of the shadows. "No, take me!" he shouted. He is using his staff to keep him from being sucked in, but he uproots his staff and starts to slide in.

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere," Eddy said, using a yo-yo to keep his tall friend from falling victim to the shadows.

Double D is begin to slide as well, with his new weapon not getting a firm grip on the ground, and Eddy uses his second yo-yo to keep both Eds from falling in. The greedy Ed got up to a street light and he ties both strings to the post to keep Ed and Double D from taking the plunge, while Eddy grips on to the pole for his dear life as well. The white boy Zip-fly glides along the top of the shadows, noticing the Eds in his sight before focusing his attention on the failing Darkside.

"You idiot! Do you have any idea on what you are doing?" he shouted.

"Kinda," Prankster replied. "The spell's weakening and I need to perform one more spell before things get ugly."

"Well you're dragging the Keyblade into the shadows!" the masked boy stated. "You want to get into more trouble with our master? I suggest you get down here and get the Keyblade before it goes down with its wielder!"

"I can't right now," the ghost replied. "I need to have full control over this spell or otherwise we could be kissing our behinds goodbye. And you're a lot closer to the Keyblade than I am, so you go get it!"

Zip-fly mutters something under his breath as he skates towards the struggling Ed boys. Eddy looks up to see a white blur heading straight towards them and he struggles to get his friends up towards him.

"Double D, he's heading straight towards you!" shouted Eddy.

The smart Ed looks behind him to see Zip-fly with a katana hand ready to swing and a normal hand ready for grabbing, and the Ed remembers that he has the sword the masked boy is after. Calculating the time, Double D waits until the boy in white is close enough to take a swing, and when the moment arrived, Double D slashes with the Keyblade right at Zip-fly's chest and making the boy back off. Zip-fly clutches onto his chest and he lifts his hand up to reveal the X on his chest is partially open and he could feel his energy slipping out of his body. The masked boy backs away from the Eds, cursing under his breath, as Zip-fly skates back to get some repairs to his body.

In the distance, Blitzer is running on top of the shadows, toting a girl on his back. Zip-fly notices Blitzer getting closer and he signals for Prankster to get ready to leave the area. The ghost and the wolf look at the masked boy in confusion, wondering why they are leaving without the Keyblade, as they soon realize that the cul-de-sac is collapsing along with Darkside and they need to get out before they are stuck into the darkness. Prankster pulls the staff up and he prepares a teleportation spell for all three beings to a safe zone.

At the street light, Eddy is gripping onto the pole for his dear life and the strings, in case the strong comes loose from the pole and the others begin to slip into the shadows. The Eds watch as their home is falling around them, with the remainder of the children slipping into the core and never to be seen from again. Eddy's grip starts to slip and he pulls himself back to wrap his arm around the pole, but the shadows are immense and they are tugging on both Ed and Double D. The Eds could hear Darkside crashing down behind them, with the sound of crashing houses and loud moaning, as the giant's body breaks down faster and causing the current to get stronger.

"I don't know how much longer I could hold on," Eddy stated.

"Eddy, if you loose your grip, just don't let go of the strings!" replied Double D.

"I'm going to miss you guys!" Ed shouted.

"Ed, we're not going anywhere!" Eddy responded.

But one strong pull of the shadow got Eddy free of the street light and out in the middle of the shadows. The Eds are now circling in the shadows, with a few Heartless popping up to duck the Eds in the shadows. Double D uses his Keyblade to defend the Eds from the Heartless and the number drops when they got close to the center. Soon, one by one, the Eds head down into oblivion, with Double D being the last to go, and the center closes on top of the boys to block out the light from entering the darkness.

The last thing the Eds could see is an image of a boy and a tall black figure.

OOO

Now outside of the world that once housed the town of Peach Creek, the three beings that caused the destruction are standing far away from the darkness that is engulfing the world. With the world going into oblivion and a mission finish, the two boys and wolf look towards the world they destroyed with glee.

"Oh boy this is great!" stated Prankster. "I told you that this spell will work this time, and guess what happened."

"Nice work Prankster," said Zip-fly. "We came for half of our mission and we lost the Keyblader."

"But we got rid of him, did we? We don't need the wielder, just the Keyblade, right?"

The masked boy returns a glare, remembering that they were suppose to bring the Keyblade to their master in hopes that they can use its potential. But with the wielder of the Keyblade eliminated, the Keyblade will find another person in the universe and they will track the key down and claim the weapon for themselves.

Blitzer lets out a loud snarl. "Is there a chance that the Keyblade survived that blast?" the wolf asked.

"There is a chance. The Keyblade is one weapon that needs a master, and if one were to fall, it will find a replacement," said Zip-fly.

"Then we should be looking for it right now!" stated Prankster.

"Relax, will you? We're already in enough trouble for destroying another world thanks to you and we lost our chance to get our hands on the Keyblade yet again!"

"Your name is Zip-fly, right? So zip it!"

The masked boy takes his right hand and morphs the hand into a katana blade. "I don't want to hear another word from your mouth or otherwise I will slice your head clean off!"

"Now, now children, there's no need to get violent now," said a man's voice.

The two fighting being looks in the direction of the voice to find a man much older than they are standing in space as well. He appears to be using a form of hologram to project his presence, seeing how a normal person like him will not survive the harsh climate that is space. The hologram image itself is static, so the image is not clear, but the man's speaking voice is coming out cleanly.

"So once again, you have failed me for what seems to be the umpteenth time in the row," the man's voice said in a serious tone. "I'm really disappointed in you three. I am hoping that you three are better replacement for my original children, and yet you are destroying worlds without bringing back a Keyblade wielder!"

"We are sorry," said Zip-fly. "We are trying our best here, but Prankster is intervening in my plans to capture the Keyblade wielder."

"But that doesn't make up for the destruction of other worlds! If you were to think about your actions, we could have the Keyblade in our hands right now!"

"But don't fret," said Zip-fly. "We will find the Keyblade and we will bring its user to you."

"That's good to hear, but I'm on my last nerve with you. If I find out that you three blew up another world without getting the Keyblade, I'll make sure to eliminate you personally."

The transmission is cut off, leaving the three beings alone in space, with the black void behind them now closing.

"So what are we going to do?" asked Blitzer.

"Only one thing to do... we need to find the Keyblade," said Zip-fly.

"We will find the wielder, we'll capture him," continues Prankster.

"And then we'll ship him off to the master!" barked the wolf.

Zip-fly shoots a hand outward towards the wolf. "Blitzer, sniff out the Keyblade," he ordered. "We need to find it soon. Otherwise our master is not going to be happy with us any longer."

* * *

OK, let me explain the rundown of the setting. So the universe that I am setting this in is within the Cartoon Network universe, with me taking shows that appeared or are appearing on the network and placing them within here. The worlds destroyed were previous shows that weren't that popular. So there may be a good reason why I am explaining that part. You can imagine in your head what worlds I may have destroyed.

As for why I blew up the Eds' world... isn't that how Destiny Islands ended back in the first game? I'm not trying to be cruel to the show; I am only going along with the basis of _Kingdom Hearts_. And it is a good thing that this is turning out differently than what I previously had in mind.

OK, why exactly would I make Double D the Keyblader, Eddy the Defender and Ed the Wizard? Well, in my mind, Double D is much more perfect for wielding the Keyblade than Eddy, who seems perfect but his heart is not pure enough, and Ed… well, his heart is in the right place, but the Keyblade should know better. As for Eddy and Ed… to think that I should base them after Donald and Goofy… personality, yes. Weapons... not so much. I think that Eddy is perfect for the shield due to that he can wield it much like a giant yo-yo and he doesn't have much defense in the first place. Ed… he can take more abuse than the other Eds and he could be standing if he gets hit with a Thundara spell (I'm trying not to push it with Thundaga), and Ed may know a few more spells than Eddy will if he gets the staff.

And allow me to note: the three you see as Zip-fly, Prankster and Blitzer are original versions of Nobodies, Heartless, and Unversed in that order. Zip-fly and Prankster are mix-match from different Heartless and Nobodies, and as for Blitzer he is totally original. I did my research and there is no such thing for what I am imagining for this wolf hybrid of mine. And to let you know... these three is how I imagine my Nobody, Heartless and Unversed would be like if I lost my body and my negativity grew into an Unversed. Yes, negativity makes an Unversed.

So again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is an oh-so very familiar location.


	3. Act I, Ch 03: Traverse Town I

I am glad that I can begin this story. Well... at least telling a true _Kingdom Hearts_ story. With the Eds now in the world of _Kingdom Hearts_, it's time to get things in motion and get everything in place for the performance of a lifetime.

So the title says it all. There's nothing really I can talk about in right now... except for a few characters that you are going to recognize and a few original characters. Like I said in Chapter Two, this is going to be based in the Cartoon Network, so some of these faces are going to come out of this universe.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Three – Welcome to Traverse Town!

OOO

"Ugh, my aching head…"

The pain is rushing throughout both Ed's and Eddy's bodies, as they are lying out in the middle of a cobblestone street. Both Eds are just lying there, feeling sore all over, until the pain starts to ease up and both got to sit up. They slowly open their eyes, revealing that they are not in the shadows or in their home of Peach Creek anymore. Both Eds scan the surrounding area, seeing several buildings surrounding what appears to be a courtyard.

Eddy got up on both of his feet, stretching to get back to normal, and he could see that there is not a single person, besides the Eds, in the streets. He looks to see nearly all of the buildings have their lights on, and Eddy looks up to see that it is nighttime in wherever they are. Ed also got up on his feet, stretching as well, and a strange odor leaks out of his jacket, heading straight over to Eddy.

The small Ed picks up the foul odor and recoils in disgust. "Ed, have you taken a bath lately?" he snapped.

"What's a bath?" asked Ed.

"Oh right, I forgot you had a bathtub full of gravy," Eddy mumbles without care. He turns away from Ed so that he can look around the courtyard. "So Ed, do you have any idea where we are?"

The tall Ed gives a good look around before turning to Eddy. "I have not the slightest clue, Eddy," he answered.

"It figures as much," the small Ed mumbles. He looks around and notices something missing from the scene. "Hey, do you see Sock-head anywhere?"

Ed quickly realizes that their friend is missing and he looks around with a panic look, quickly seeing no signs of their medium size friend. Ed starts to tear up and Eddy jumps at the sight of Ed crying. The greedy Ed begins to come up with something to say to Ed before the tall Ed starts crying up a river. With a good thought in mind, Eddy walks up to Ed and got an arm around the tall Ed's shoulders.

"Now, now Ed, there isn't need to do any waterworks," he said, trying to make Ed quit crying. "I'm sure Double D is here in this town. He may be in a different part of town. All we need to do is go look for him."

"You think he's here?" Ed sniffed.

"Yeah! We just need to go find him, that's all," the small Ed said, pointing to one of the exits of the courtyard.

As Eddy begins to head off, Ed notices something different about Eddy's attire. "Hey Eddy, you look different," he stated.

The small Ed stops in his track and he looks down at himself, noticing the changes to his clothing. Instead of his usual yellow shirt, he is donning a similar shirt with a zipper going down the middle and a pocket on his left breast. He also has light yellow sleeves coming out of his normal sleeves, and he notices two black rings on his right hand. For pants, he is wearing the same color pants from his home, but there are zippers towards the bottom of his pants, some pockets on each leg, and two pockets towards his waist that are made out of zippers. He looks down at his feet and he notices that his shoes are the same, with the same color red as they were back home.

Eddy decides to check his head, giving a good pat on his head to only find that he is wearing a hat. He lifts his hat and checks his hair, only to feel that his hair is fully grown and his three strands became three spikes. The Ed takes a strand and notices that his color is black, and he grins by the sight of his new hair. He then shifts his attention towards his new hat, seeing his new accessory to be a square cap. The color design has different shades of brown for one section and for the brim, and there is a line dividing most of the hat on the right. There is a pair of goggles sitting on the brim, with a leather strap, silver frames and clear lenses, and Eddy notices a smiley face badge hanging above the goggles on the left side of his hat.

"If this is meant to be funny, then I ain't laughing," Eddy said, putting his cap back on his head.

"Uh Eddy, it looks like you have a turtle and a Jawbreaker on your back," Ed pointed out.

The word "Jawbreaker" springs into Eddy's mind and he quickly reaches behind him to grab whatever is on his back, only for his excitement to turn into disappointment. What is really on the small Ed's back is a green shield, big enough to cover Eddy's torso, and he could see a Jawbreaker in the middle of the shield. There are four gray square nodes sitting on the edge of the shield and there are two small blue gems sitting in-between a gray ring, giving Eddy a balance shield. The small Ed gives his shield a final look, looking under the shield to find the name "Jumbo Jawbreaker" written in the metal, and he places his new tool on the leather strap that is going over his shoulder.

Eddy looks over to Ed to see if there is anything different with him, and he could see that his appearance has also change. Ed is still keeping his red and white striped shirt, but what is different is that his green jacket is sporting more pockets on the outside, with two pockets that are made out of zippers, and what is strange is that Ed's white stripes are made out of zippers as well. There are two orange bands gripping onto the upper part of his arms and two fingerless black gloves on both of his hands. As for the lower half of the Ed, he remains unchanged, save for his knees on his blue jeans have zippers.

As for what is Ed is holding in his hand, the Ed is wielding what appears to be a staff of some sort, only this staff is made out of video game controllers. There are two different types of wand controllers making up the shaft of the staff, with a joystick at the bottom and an upside-down controller on top holding a pink orb. Eddy scratches his head, imagining how Ed could use such a staff since he does not own any modern day gaming consoles, but he figures that Ed is a nerd when it comes to this stuff, so he dubs his staff "Nerd's Tools."

And then Eddy notices Ed's new hat. "Uh Ed, you have something snoring on your head," said the greedy Ed.

The tall Ed looks up at his new wizard hat and he lifts it off to reveal a full grown set of orange hair. Eddy looks confused by how much of a change there is to coming into this world, as Ed begins to examine his wizard hat further. On the hat, there is a leather belt at the brim of the hat, the top half being brown and the very tip having a zipper on the end, and the lower half being blue and sporting a face of two close eyes and a zipper for a mouth.

"Aw, it's asleep," said Ed. He gives his hat a few light knocks. "Wakey-wakey my hat, it's time to get up."

The hat begins to stir, lifting up one of its eyes to take notice of whoever is waking it up and it jumps out of Ed's hands upon seeing the tall boy. The hat lands on the street and it begins to shout some things, but the zipper is muffling the words. Eddy resisted opening the zipper, but he manages to open the zipper and hateful words spill out of the mouth of the wizard's hat.

"... and another thing: no one has the right to manhandle me like that in my sleep!" the hat shouted. "I got to get some good quality sleep these days and a guy like me needs those hours to keep his power in tact!"

"Whoa, whoa, relax buddy, we aren't going to hurt you," said Eddy. "We just got here and you appeared on top of my friend's head."

The hat stops his rant to take a good look at the Eds standing him. "Well... I don't recall seeing you two here in Traverse Town, so I'm guessing your world was destroyed by the Heartless."

"Traverse Town? That's where we are?" asked Eddy.

"Indeed. The name's Normadomus, a powerful wizard am I, and I am one of the few people that are respectable in this town," the hat stated.

"If you're a wizard, how come you're a hat?" Ed asked, pointing out the hat's current form.

"What are you talking about? I can't be a hat. Do any of you have a mirror on you?"

Eddy knows for certain that he owns a mirror on him and he begins to check his pockets, old and new, but he could not find his mirror. Ed opens up his jacket to dig around the many pockets that he hides in his jacket and he pulls out the key item and holding it in front of the wizard hat Normadomus. The hat squints at the mirror, trying to get a clear image, and Eddy takes the mirror from Ed to give it a good cleaning before placing the mirror back in front of Normadomus.

The hat flips out upon seeing himself in the mirror. "Unbelievable!" he stated. "I really am a hat! But... how did I become this? There's no way that I could myself into a hat, nor is there anyone out there with any negative feelings towards me."

"Well if you are going to complain about this, how about you go find out who did this?" asked Eddy.

"Are you crazy? I'm a hat! I can't just walk around like you two!" snapped Normadomus.

"But aren't you a wizard?" asked Ed.

"A wizard that deals with defensive and healing magic and Blizzard spells, that's why. I don't know any transformation spells and even if I did, I don't know how to turn myself back into a human in this state!" The hat then eyes Ed. "Well, judging by your looks and that staff in your hands, you seem to be a wizard. You're one that uses more of an explosive type of offensive, maybe capable of pulling a few Haste spells here and there."

"If you want to talk about explosive, he pulled off a huge lightning attack back home," said Eddy, recalling the previous battle.

"So you must have learned Thundara already! I'm impressed by such a newcomer as you to learn a good spell like that! So all you're missing is Fire, Terra, Shade and Haste," Normadomus said, jumping up onto Ed's head. "Not to worry; I'm sure that you can find the time to pull off those spells on your journey."

"You mean like this?" asked Ed, pointing his staff forward and shooting out a fireball. The fireball heads straight forward and hits a Heartless in the distance.

Normadomus stares off in the distance where the fireball hit, blinking a few times before snapping to reality. "OK, scratch off Fire from that list," he mutters. "All that's left is Terra, Shade and Haste. Don't worry about Blizzard, Aero, Reflect, Gravity and Cure. I got those under my belt and I know Curaga in case things get real nasty."

"Curaga?" echoed Eddy.

"It's the highest form of healing spells, capable of healing the whole team almost back to normal," Normadomus explains. "I can't say much about you, since you're nothing more than a Defender."

"Oh yeah, then care to explain this?"

Eddy takes off his shield and he gives it a good toss, allowing the shield to fly straight down the courtyard before returning back to Eddy. The Ed grabs onto the edge of the shield once it came back and Normadomus is amaze by how Eddy could do that once he realizes the two rings on the Ed's fingers.

"So you have those leash rings on your fingers for your shield?" he asked. "I say, that's pretty smart thinking on your part."

"Excuse me?"

"Those rings on your fingers... those are leash rings, a type of magic rings that creates an invisible string that can attach to anything that can be toss and return to the user."

Eddy takes a good look at the two rings on his fingers and he pats the shield on his back. He wonders how the two rings can hold up to the heavy shield such as the Jumbo Jawbreaker. The small Ed then shrugs and he focuses towards one area of the town, seeing some businesses, and he begins to head towards that direction, with Ed trailing behind and Normadomus riding on top of Ed's head.

"So where are we heading Eddy?" asked Ed.

"We're looking for Double D, remember?" the small Ed replied. "He's got to be somewhere in this town, so we need to look for him."

"Do you have any idea where you are going?" asked Normadomus. "In case you don't know, you just got here and you don't have the slightest clue on where to go."

The Eds stop where they are at, allowing for Ed's hat to tug on the tall Ed's head to make him move to a building to their left. The two boys walk up and Ed gives a firm knocking on the door, making sure that the people inside could hear him. A panel opens up on the door, revealing nothing but a pair of black shades and light coming from the back.

"Can I help you?" a deep voice asked.

"Yes you can. I got some newcomers to the town and we need some help into finding their friend."

The being on the other side stares at the Eds for a bit before closing the panel and unlocking the door. The wooden door opens up and Ed's eyes gleam with joy by what he is seeing. There standing in the doorway is a tall robot, green in paint job and very large to resemble much like a muscular man. Its head is round in design with part of the head is flatten, resembling a green helmet, while the eyes are cover by a black visor. Ed is about to pounce onto the robot and give it a good bear hug, but Eddy grabs a hold of Ed's staff and prevents the Ed from getting any further.

"You want to come in or not?" the robot asked in a deep voice.

OOO

_What is this I am feeling? Pain? No... this isn't pain. Just what is this sensation? And for that matter, where am I?_

"Key... blade..."

_Key... blade? Wait... Keyblade! Does he mean my Keyblade?_

"The door... the heart..."

_Door? Heart? What does this has to do with the Keyblade?_

"The final lock... evil... the Destroyer..."

_Huh? None of this is adding up. Just what is going on here? Who is saying this stuff and why to me? I need to know!_

OOO_  
_

Double D quickly wakes up from his slumber, after seeing nothing but darkness around him and his body floating endlessly in the darkness. He clearly remembers the dark voice echoing in his head, recording the words that the voice said and storing them in his memory. Still, the voice is haunting and he is left with puzzling words, all for him to figure out on his own. What does the Keyblade that Double D is wielding has to do with a door, a heart, a lock, and something evil. And the Destroyer... what does that add up to?

The Ed shakes off the idea and keeps the words in mind for now, saving them in case there is a piece that could help him solve this puzzle. The boy is now sitting on some cobblestones, in which appears to be a large courtyard, and the Ed looks around to notice some light post towering above him. Double D looks around the area he is in, noticing some businesses and some homes, and all of them have their lights on. The smart Ed got up on his feet and he looks over to some stairs, with a large red mailbox on the right and a trashcan on the left of the stairs.

"Hi there!"

Double D nearly flew out of his clothing upon hearing this statement. He spins around and notices a girl standing right behind him, smiling brightly just like Ed. She is very tall for age, going up just a tad higher than Double D's hat. This girl is wearing a typical theme for a girl, being a pink ballet outfit, and her blonde hair is tied up into two ponytails. She is staring into Double D's eyes with her shiny blue eyes, which is making the Ed nervous with the way she is staring at him.

"So... are you new here?" she asked. "Did your world blow up?"

"Uh... yes, it did," Double D nervously replied.

"Aw, there's no need to be nervous," the girl said. "My world was blown up by the Heartless too, and me and my brother are happily living here."

"You don't say? Um... is there any chance that you seen my friends around?"

The girl looks at Double D with a puzzled look. "No, I hadn't seen anyone else here besides you," she said. "If I did, I will tell you."

In the distance, a bell begins to chime, ringing in the new hour and the girl looks up to notice the time. "Well, I better get going," she said. "I need to go get my brother and head home. It's nice meeting you!"

Double D gives a wave to the girl and she returns one to him, as the girl heads up the stairs and away from the boy. Once the girl is out of Double D's sight, the boy begins to head towards the steps and he climbs up to get to the next level, seeing what is up beyond the wall. As for what he is seeing, there is no sign of the girl and a few more businesses and homes, but no signs of any other people in the town. The Ed begins to think that this may have to do with the nighttime atmosphere, or people are afraid of something out in the streets. If so, why was that girl out in the streets, and why is he out and about?

The smart Ed walks up to a storefront and he catches a glimpse of himself, seeing that his attire has changed upon arriving in this city. He is staring at himself in the window, seeing that he is wearing a dark gray jacket, with a yellow lining for the opening and four straps dangling over the opening, on top of his normal red shirt. He is still wearing his normal purple pants, red knee socks and blue shoes, and he notices that there are zippers for his pockets on his jacket and some that are on his sleeves. And he checks his head, seeing that he is still wearing his black ski cap, and he runs a hand underneath his hat to make sure that none of his instruments are missing.

Once getting his jacket straight, Double D heads away from the window and begin exploring the town some more, hoping that he can run into someone that can help him, or maybe one of the children of the cul-de-sac to make sure that they made it out alive. As the Ed is walking, he notices a sign hanging just above a door, reading "General Store," and the boy can see the lights are still on and there is someone at the counter. Double D got positive thoughts in his head, now thinking that the people inside will help him in this situation, so he reaches for the doorknob and opens the door.

Upon entering the store, a bell rings above and Double D sticks his head inside, only to witness one employee stumbling on a ladder and crashing onto the floor. Both the Ed and the clerk flinch from the impact and the clerk looks over to see if the person fallen over is all right.

"Geez Newt, are you trying to break the merchandise?" the clerk asked sharply. "Honestly, I don't know how you can stand on those two feet of yours."

"I'm sorry sir," the man replied, getting up from his fall with a cardboard box over his head. "It's just that the bell rung, meaning that we have a customer."

"So I see..." the clerk looks over to Double D, who is busy cleaning up some of the mess. "Excuse me young man, but what reason do you have being in my store at this time?"

Double D got up from the mess and got up to the counter. "Well... you see, I just got here, and I can't find my friends anywhere around here," he said.

"Oh. Then that means your world is destroyed too, eh?" the clerk asked. "That's too bad. We hadn't seen a world gone out since the war, but this isn't the first. As all worlds, every inhabitant that survived the Heartless always end up here in Traverse Town. I'm sure that you're friends are around here somewhere, maybe even looking for you."

"You really think so? But I am worry that my friends aren't even here."

"Well, that's a strong impossibility," the clerk said. "If your friends aren't here, then that means that they could have wound up on different worlds in the universe."

"But there isn't a chance of that happening, is there?" the man with the box asked.

"No Newt, there isn't," the clerk said. "Now get that box off your head. You look ridiculous."

"Will do." With that, the man takes off the cardboard box of his head, revealing a dirty blonde mat of hair and a young face. The rest of the man consist of him being thin but strong enough to lift heavy merchandise, wearing a khaki brown shirt with his sleeves rolled up and gray pants all under a teal work apron with a white stripe going down the apron. The man looks down at the mess he made and he gather some of the merchandise to place into the box, gathering all of the unbroken bottles to separate them from the broken ones on the floor.

"So what did you break?" the clerk asked.

The man Newt checks the floor at all of broken glass to see what the merchandise was. "Well... it looks like a few Potions, a couple Ethers, and... crap, I broke an Elixir+!"

The clerk sighs. "You know that this is coming out of your pay," he said, pinching his eyes. "It took me forever to find that Elixir+, and now you gone and broke it open!"

"I'm really sorry Giovanni sir," Newt apologized. "I just... didn't really know my true..."

"Just save it," the clerk said, cutting his employee off. "There some inventory in the back that needs to be catalog and stack in the right area. Are you sure you can do this after your little spill?"

Newt gives a firm nod and he got behind the counter so that he can head into the back room. Once the door is shut, the clerk Giovanni faces the smart Ed. "Well boy, if there is anything I can do, all I can is send you to TOM. He should be able to help you."

"Tom?" echoed Double D.

"He's currently living in a deeper part of town," Giovanni said, reaching under the counter to grab a piece of paper and a pencil. He quickly jots down the address and tears off the piece to hand to Double D. "Here you go. This should help you get to TOM's place. And if you see him... tell him he needs to wait some more."

Double D nods at this request, pocketing the paper in his zipper pocket, and he makes his way towards the door. Upon exiting the shop, he pulls the paper back out to get the direction in his head, making sure that he remembers where he needs to go. After remembering the details, he places the piece of paper back in his pocket and he starts to head off, but a sudden woman shriek stops the Ed dead in his track. He looks to the right and notices a woman being chase by what appears to be a Shadow Heartless, but is wearing a helmet over its head, a purple shirt with a heart emblem, and owns a set of red claws. The Ed watches as the Heartless chases the woman down the courtyard, seeing the woman's fear as his mind runs blank.

The woman trips on a crack with one of her heels, coming to a crashing fall and the Heartless stops very close to the woman. She looks in fear as the Heartless got closer and closer, rising up a hand to swipe. The woman pleads, begging for her heart to be spared, but the Heartless did not bother to stop. The black creature makes a clean slice through the woman, cutting right through her torso, and causing her to fade away. Double D is shock by what he is seeing, witnessing a murder of an innocent woman done by a Heartless, as the woman is now gone and a floating heart is taking her place. The Heartless pinches the heart and chomps down on the heart using its helmet, eating the heart up right before Double D.

The Ed is standing there completely frozen in fear, not moving even a single muscle upon seeing one Heartless take down a woman and eating her heart. After swallowing the heart, the Heartless turns its attention to Double D, sensing his beating heart in his chest, and the creature makes a dash towards him. Double D tries to move his hand and summon his Keyblade, but the fear is binding him, keeping the Ed from moving whatsoever, so the only thing he can do is stand there and wait for the Heartless to strike him. The Heartless got up into the air and prepares a claw hand to swing at the defenseless Ed's chest.

Just before the Heartless can swing, a gunshot rings throughout the courtyard and a piercing energy bullet went straight through the Heartless, entering and exiting through its sides and making the creature disappear. All that remains is a heart, which is floating up into the sky and never to be seen again. Double D starts to regain feeling in his body, thanks to the gunshot, and he begins to search around frantically for any more signs of Heartless and for the gunner.

"There's no need to worry about that Solider," a robotic voice said, with the sound of a gun twirling. "Still, it would be better if you stayed inside. The streets aren't safe at night."

Double D's knees start to buckle and he came crashing down on the ground, still terrified by the event before him. A robot rushes up to the fallen Ed, checking to make sure that the boy is feeling alright, and it got Double D back onto his feet so that he can carry him off. As the robot is moving, Double D regain feeling in his body once again, and he slips out from the robot's grasp to stare at the helping robot. The robot stops and he turns around to find the smart Ed staring right at the robot.

"Is something the matter?" the robot asked.

Double D is staring at the robot with a slowly growing passion for what is standing right before him. He is amazed by how such well crafted this robot is, with it standing as tall as Double D and is flawless in detail. The robot is well rounded with its form, keeping a smooth look than a sharper edge design, and the color scheme mixes blues with white and black. There is a gun hoister, holding the gun that the robot used earlier on the Heartless, on the robot's hip and no signs of other improvements. As for its head, it is a round sphere, resembling a blue helmet and there is a black sunglasses-like visor covering its eyes. And Double D notices a strange pattern printed on the robot's chest, looking very much like a biohazard symbol but much different.

The Ed realizes the robot's last sentence and he snaps out of his spell. "I'm sorry, but I'm just fascinated by your looks," he answered. "I am fond of machines and anything that runs on electricity, and I have to say that I never seen a robot quite like you."

"Well thank you," the robot replied. "It's nice getting compliments like that. By the way, the name's TOM. If you're looking for a place, I got one."

"Wait a minute... aren't you the TOM the store clerk told me about?" asked Double D.

"Store clerk? You mean Giovanni? What about him?"

"Well, he said that I should see you about helping me find my friends," the smart Ed responded. "Oh, and he also said that you need to wait some more."

The robot TOM stares at Double D, processing the last sentence before figuring it out. "It's all right," he replied. "I can handle the wait some more. It's not like I have anything planned for the next few months. Anyway, I guess I can help you finding your friends. If any luck, they might be at my place and be waiting for you right now."

"I hope so," Double D sighs, taking his first steps after recovering from the shocking sight.

As the Ed walks off, TOM lags behind to study Double D for a bit. He mumbles something under his breath before regaining the lead and taking Double D towards his home deep in Traverse Town.

OOO

In a far off part of Traverse Town, the robot TOM is leading Double D through a series of alleyways, making several turns and crawling through narrow spaces before coming up to a large opening and a door standing before them. The two walk up to the door and TOM unlocks the door, opening it up to allow the two of them to walk inside of the building. Once inside, TOM locks the door and he begins to walk ahead, leaving Double D to admire the inside of TOM's home, and he foot catches onto a trip wire, causing sirens to go off and leaving the Ed open for an attack.

"Halt Heartless!" a young voice stated.

Double D looks around the room very quickly, determining where the source of the voice is coming from, and he looks straight ahead of him to notice an orange blur heading straight for him. The Ed tries once again to bring out the Keyblade, but he does not know how to bring it forth, so he waits for the blur to strike him or for something else to save him from this predicament. As the blur gets closer, the smart Ed notices that it is a robot with an orange color scheme and he realizes that he could move out of the way for the robot to rush pass and miss. Just as he begins to move, TOM walks into the room and he rushes in to stop the orange blur from hitting Double D.

"Dash, what exactly are you doing?" the blue robot asked.

The blur stops in its track, now fully revealing itself to be another robot. As of the blur, the robot itself has an orange color scheme, with a few areas of its body with reds and black. The design is much more suited for speed, as such when the robot was striking Double D, and there are wheels on the robot's heels. As for the head, it resembles much like TOM's helmet, but it is orange and is pointed towards the back to make the robot much more aerodynamic, and it also has the black visor. The orange robot looks at Double D for a minute, getting a good look at him before realizing he is not a Heartless.

"I'm sorry TOM, but the alarm was tripped," the robot protested, sounding much like a young man. "He triggered the alarm and it was my duty to protect this place from Heartless attacks..."

"You know that job belongs to Clyde," TOM replied, cutting the orange robot off. He then lets out a sigh. "I know you're trying to help out Dash, but this isn't the _Absolution_."

"I know TOM," the orange robot Dash sighs. He then turns his attention towards Double D. "I am sorry about that. We're just need to be on high alert as who knows when a Heartless can strike."

"But aren't you all robots?" asked the smart Ed, pointing out that the robots do not have hearts in them.

"That's true, but we're protecting what is living in this house," a green robot said, walking into the room carrying a heavy load. "We need to be on guard if something like a Heartless does get into this house."

"Two, is that everything we need to barricade the outer perimeter?" TOM asked.

"Indeed," the green robot known as Two replied. "This is everything that the boy needs to keep his research going."

"All right," the blue robot said, getting his hands on a crate lid so that he can check to see what is inside of the box.

Double D walks up to where the robots are and he notices some of the supplies that are lying inside of the crates. "Isn't this a bit much?" he asked. "Are you taking this too seriously in protecting yourselves?"

"You can't be too careful," TOM said, taking out some building materials. "If you were ever part of the Great War, then you should know when to be on guard. Besides, this isn't for us."

"It isn't?" the Ed asked.

"We have a few children that lost their world to a trio of beings," answered Dash. "They are known as Blitzer, Zip-fly and Prankster; an Unversed, Nobody and Heartless."

"A what, what and Heartless?" Double D asked, baffled by the first two. He knows what a Heartless is, due their appearance being black, but the other two are unknown to him.

"I'm going to guess that your world was destroyed by those three, correct?" TOM asked. "We hadn't seen worlds getting destroyed since the War, but it's not likely for those three to be destroying more worlds."

"But why exactly are they destroying worlds?" Double D asked. "I don't see how my home was randomly attacked by those three and the Heartless."

"Well, it may have to do with…" TOM begins to say before a voice interrupts him.

"Dee-Dee, don't push that...!"

Before the voice could finish, an explosion erupts from a room, sending smoke and heat throughout the house. Dash got to a window and open it up, and he grabs a fan to blow the smoke out faster, clearing the air to its freshen state. After the smoke is gone, two figures walk out of the room where the explosion happened, and the boy walking out collapses onto the ground while holding a glass vial of a green liquid. The girl that walked out picks up the glass and begins to slosh the liquid inside, stirring the contents to make the liquid change colors. Double D recognizes the girl from earlier and he walks up to talk to her.

"Uh excuse me, but we met earlier," the Ed said. "My name is Eddward with two D's, but everyone calls me Double D."

"Double D, huh? Well mine is Dee-Dee," the girl said, dropping the glass onto the boy's head so that she can extend her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The boy that is on the ground quickly recovers from his fall, now feeling the pain of the glass sticking into his head and the stirred liquid burning into his head. He looks towards Dee-Dee with a burning look in his eye, and the girl looks back with an innocent look before noticing something else on the boy's head.

"Uh Dex, there's a fire burning on your head," Dee-Dee pointed out.

The boy processes what Dee-Dee is saying and he begins to feel the pain of the fire burning his orange hair, so he rapidly slaps the flames out using his purple gloves. The flames are still burning, so Two walks up and uses a fire extinguisher on the poor boy, covering him in the chilling carbon dioxide and getting the fire to go out. The boy clutches himself to try to warm himself back up and he faces the green robot with his teeth chattering.

"T-T-Thanks T-T-Two," he stuttered.

"Don't mention it," Two said, walking away.

The boy's body starts to heat up, getting him warm after taking a few cold blast of the carbon dioxide. As he is brushing himself off, he is revealing what is underneath the powder. The boy is wearing a scientist outfit, consisting of a button-up lab coat, a pair of black pants and black boots, with a pair of purple gloves covering his hands. He is also wearing a thick rim glasses on his face, and there is a burn spot on top of his orange hair, but not much damage to the boy's scalp.

He removes his glasses to clean them off, only to replace them back on his face and turn to face Double D. "Ah, so we have another visitor that lost his world," he spoke with a thick accent. "Welcome to this quaint little home we have here. The name's Dexter, boy genius, and I believe you met the others, including my annoying sister Dee-Dee."

"Hey!" stated Dee-Dee.

"Now, now, let's be friendly here," Double D said. "I'm still new here and now I am more lost from when I got here, and I really need to find my friends."

"Are your friends you looking for a tall guy that smells of a strange odor and a short kid with a short temper?" Two asked.

"Why yes, those are my friends!" the smart Ed stated.

"They're in the back room," the green robot responded, pointing to where the other Eds are.

Upon hearing that his friends are in the same building as he is, Double D rushes out of the room he is current in and begins sliding down the slippery floor of the hallway. He skids all the way down the hallway, looking around for any signs of his friends being in these rooms. As he got closer to the end, he could feel something tingling in the air and the lights begin to flicker above him, as a sudden snap of thunder bounces off the walls and a door flies towards the Ed. Double D manages to dodge the door only by a few inches, allowing the wooden door to fly farther down the hallway.

After a couple of bangs, the door finally crashes at the other end of the hallway. Double D looks in the direction of where the door came from and he notices smoke coming out of the room. He rushes up to the door to find that there is a thick cloud of smoke still lingering in the room of the explosion. As the smoke clears, Double D notices two people in the room, with both cover in soot, one is standing up and the other is lying on the ground twitching. The person that is standing is gripping onto a game controller staff and he looks at himself with some happiness before dropping his smile for a frown.

"I didn't achieve toast status," the tall Ed said with disappointment. "I'm burnt."

"Ed..." Eddy said dryly, twitching slightly. "...WHY?"

"All that's missing is some butter," said Ed, looking at himself in the mirror.

"I'll say," said Normadomus, coughing up a smoke cloud. "If that were a Thundaga, you'll be lying on the floor without a pulse."

Double D recognizes two of the voices and he walks up to the standing crisp boy. "...Ed? Is that you?"" he asked.

The boy looks at Double D, processing the data in his mind, and he pounces right on top of the smart Ed, giving him a big squeeze of a bear hug. "Double D, it's really you!" the tall Ed shouted. "Oh how I miss you so!"

"Wait, Double D's here?" Eddy asked, getting up from his condition. He looks to see his friend being swung around by Ed. "OK Ed, time to drop him. He needs to breathe, you know."

As soon Ed hears this, he lets his grip go of Double D and allow the medium Ed to drop to the floor. Upon landing, Double D notices the changes to the other Eds' clothing and what they are carrying on them. Ed offers his hand to help Double D up, but the smart Ed got up by himself and the Eds can hear the robots coming into the room.

Double D turns to his friend and he takes notice of Eddy's clothing. "That's a nice look on you," he said.

"Same to ya," the small Ed replied. "I'm jealous that you have a jacket." He then takes notice of his clothing once again. "I'm just wondering why our clothes are different."

"I think I have an idea, and that may be the same source that turned me into a hat," Ed's hat answered.

"Ed, why is you hat talking?" asked Double D.

"It's a long story kid," is Normadomus' answer.

"Wait... is that you Normadomus?" asked TOM.

"Yes, it's me. Why you asked?"

"Well, you're a respected individual in this town, and here you are sitting on a random stranger's head," the blue robot responded. "And you say you have an idea as to who turned you into a hat?"

"I said I might have an idea, but it's not certain," the hat explained. "I think it has to do with the chain of events happening in the past few months, with worlds disappearing, the disappearances of a few people and the kings, and..."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down!" stated Eddy. "Care to explain what the heck is going on here? I mean we got here somehow with no clue as to why, and now you're talking about some gibberish that isn't making any sense to me!"

"Me neither," Ed applied.

"Well, I am more lost as to when I got up," said Double D. "It would be interesting to understand the situation here."

"Well, I'll try my best at explaining this," said Normadomus. "So it began some months ago in my cottage... I was studying the worlds that make up this universe, interested in studying other worlds' cultures and such, but I began noticing a trend. It's has been some years since the War, but oddly worlds are now disappearing once again, and it has to do with three particular beings."

"They're Blitzer, Prankster and Zip-fly, three beings that belong to the Unversed, Heartless and Nobodies," TOM said, adding in. "They don't usually work with anyone, including their original masters, but during the months of when Normadomus was studying, they ambushed my ship, the _Absolution_, with another person... Father."

"Father? You mean your father?" asked Ed.

"No. The man is named Father," replied TOM. "He is a powerful man, capable of controlling fire at his whim and he owns a powerful army of men and teens. Plus, with the added benefit of the three, he controls the Heartless, making me and my crew defenseless against his troops."

"As time progressed, the kings from the Platinum and United Kingdoms got word of these worlds being destroyed and they went to go investigate as to who is destroying the worlds," Normadomus said, continuing on with the story. "Only after some odd weeks later, a letter appeared, coming from the queen of the United Kingdom that her husband is missing and so is the king of the Platinum Kingdom."

"This sounds familiar," said Ed, scratching his head.

"The letter stated that both kings had been missing from a long time and they hadn't sent a letter back home," the hat said. "I find it strange to see how this connects together into one, but for what we know, this may have to do with some of the Pure Hearted."

"Pure... Hearted?" asked Double D.

"People blessed with a heart without darkness," Two said.

"And these could be ordinary people," Dash said, throwing the sentence in, "including you."

"Me?" all the Eds asked at once.

"Maybe not, but it's a possibility," Normadomus said. "If one could wield a Keyblade, then that could mean that they are a Pure Hearted."

"Wait! I can wield a Keyblade!" Double D snapped.

Everyone in the room turns their attention to the smart Ed. "You... can wield a Keyblade?" asked TOM.

"Yes... but ever since I got here, I don't know how to call my Keyblade," Double D said, trying once again to call forth Kingdom Key.

"May I make a suggestion?" asked Normadomus. "Try holding out your hand and imagine the Keyblade in your open hand. Once you see it, try grabbing it."

The smart Ed nods at this and he follows Ed's hat's instructions. He holds out his right hand and he begins to concentrate on picturing Kingdom Key in his hand. Once he notices Kingdom Key floating right below his palm, he grabs onto the grip and open his eyes, now seeing that he accomplish summoning the Keyblade. Everyone is astonish, including Double D, as there is a Keyblade in the Ed's hand, but to much of Double D's disappointment, the weapon in his hand is not Kingdom Key.

Ed is the only one that is applauding for his friend's accomplishment. "You did it Double D!" he shouted.

"Ed, this isn't the Keyblade I wanted," said a disappointed Double D.

In his hand is a different Keyblade from Kingdom Key. The shaft that makes the blade is similar to Kingdom Key, but the teeth are in a different shape, there are two red jewels on the metal shaft, and there are two blades pointing towards the guard. The guard itself is different as the color scheme is red and blue and the design resembles much like a jester, with another jewel is sitting towards the end of the weapon. And dangling on the end of the chain is a little head wearing a jester's cap, finishing off the Keyblade's jester theme

_Joker's Wild_

The smart Ed hears the same voice again, this time looking around to make sure it is one of the people in the room. Everyone looks at Double D with some confusion and he shakes it off, realizing it is not important to know where the voice came from. All that is important is that he got a Keyblade in his hand, and he needs to memorize how to summon it quickly in case the Eds get into a fight.

"Now hold on, Double D ain't that pure!" barked Eddy. "I know he has done some things in the past and I should know!"

"Uh... really?" the smart Ed asked, getting nervous about one certain event.

"Kid, I said if someone can wield a Keyblade, it means that person _could_ be pure," the hat explained. "It doesn't mean that he needs a truly pure heart to wield a Keyblade. There are several ways for him to get one!"

"If he can get one, then I should get one as well!" the greedy Ed stated.

"But... you don't seem to be perfect to wield a Keyblade," Ed said, pointing out Eddy's true nature.

"It doesn't matter," said TOM. "At least we have a Keyblade, so that's good enough for us all."

"Oh, and I just remember something from that letter," said Normadomus. "The letter said that the kings are looking for someone that is wielding a key. A key that can help free the ones captured by Blitzer, Prankster and Zip-fly and prevent the Heartless from destroying other worlds."

"So what you are saying that this may be the key?" Double D asked, holding up his new Keyblade Joker's Wild.

"Possibly, but we are unsure," the hat said. "It could mean any key, but that's just me."

"Still, you are wielding a powerful weapon there," said Dexter. "If everything is true, that makes you a perfect candidate for those three to come after you and take your Keyblade."

"Not as long as we're here protecting Sock-head," said Eddy, getting confident. "Why, with my shield and Ed's magic, we can kick those three in the behind along with those Heartless and this Father!"

"I am the man with the hex!" shouted Ed.

"And since the boy here needs to learn some spells, I guess I'm stuck with them," said Normadomus.

"Well, I guess we are set," said Double D. "We are ready to go out and start a new journey."

"Then that means finding the kings, rescuing people and kicking Heartless," said the small Ed. "But... how do we get out of here?"

"Not to worry," answered Dexter, adjusting his glasses. "I am a bit of an engineer and I do have a Gummi ship that you three can use in your travel."

"A Gummi ship?" asked Ed, his mouth drooling from hearing about food.

"No, you can't eat it," the red haired boy stated. "It's a building block, not like gummy worms or bears." The genius reaches into one of his pockets and he pulls out a blueprint. "This is one of my ships I had been working on for some time. I was hoping to give it to TOM and the others to use to regain their ship, but since they still need to get more supplies, this should be more useful to you."

Eddy grabs the blueprints and he looks them over, studying the ship. As he eyes everything on the paper, he is getting rather annoyed by the color scheme of the ship's. The Ed crumbles the blueprints up and tosses the paper ball at Dexter's head.

"Is there a better color scheme you can give us?" he asked.

"If you like something a bit darker, I can do it," the boy genius said, turning his back and heading for the door. "Just give me a moment and I should have the ship ready to go."

"Sweet!" is all Eddy can say.

"Eddy, why do you have to resort to such childish behavior?" asked Double D, letting out a sigh.

"Because that's the only way to get stuff in life," the greedy Ed replied, wrapping an arm around Double D's shoulders.

"I always wanted to get some tapioca pudding skin," Ed randomly burst out.

The other Eds stare at their tall friend with some confusion, but they came to a conclusion of dropping it, as Ed is known for saying random things. The Ed boys begin to head their way out of the room they are in, only to get halfway down the hallway, where they are stop by TOM.

"Oh, and there's some things you should know..." started TOM.

OOO

In one of the houses in Traverse Town, there stands a man looking out through the window at the Eds, the robots and the boy genius Dexter. The man himself is nothing more than a silhouette, standing tall with a smooth body as if he is wearing a suit under his black body and is glowing a red outline. All there is for the man's head is that his eyes are glowing yellow, there are humps on his head to resemble his hair, and he has a smoking pipe sticking out where his mouth should be. The man looks out towards the street with an evil glare, placing a hand on the glass to let some of it melt away.

"So... there goes those three boys from your cul-de-sac," said the man in the shadows. "Can't you see that they are happy with finding their friends and not you?"

The man turns to a teenager standing in the room, who is also facing the same window and looking out to the Eds out in the street. The teen is wearing a black coat over a gray shirt and brown pants, with zippers on the sleeves and two pockets on the coat. There is a gauntlet protecting his left forearm and a shoulder pad covering his right shoulder, with a leather strap going over his left shoulder to hold up a katana sword. And a black mask, with no signs of breathing holes and eye slots, is covering the teen's face and the only thing to be exposed is the teen's ears and spiky brown hair.

"So you might as well forget about them and join me," the man said. "I have the three strongest beings on my side, and with your help, we will get our hands on the Pure Hearted and the Keyblade."

"Just to let you know, I am only doing this because you have her," the teen said, facing the man. "If I get my hands on the Keyblade Double D has, will you spare me the girl Blitzer took from my world?"

"Oh sure, I'm happy to do so," the man said. "Just as long as you can get on the boy's Keyblade, then I'll give you your girl."

"Then it's a deal," the teen replied, drawing out his sword.

"Very good. Now... what do you go by?"

The teen stares out of the window, standing there silent for a long time. "Just call me Mask."

"And you can call me Father," the man said, holding out a hand.

The teen Mask looks at the hand for a bit, studying the hand to make sure he is getting himself into a good deal with this man known as Father. Mask brushes off the offer, only to turn back to focusing on the Eds and watch them leave the city to leave off for their adventure. He returns his sword back to its sheath and he made his way towards the door, all while keeping his back on Father and hands in his pockets.

The shadow man Father could only smile. "Everything is going according to plan."

* * *

Well... I hate to be the baron of bad news, but... no _Final Fantasy_ characters in this story. Sorry, I want to stick to the formula of Cartoon Network and original characters for this story. And I really wanted to put in a Moogle in this chapter. They're so cute!

That aside, from this chapter, I have given you not only _Dexter's Laboratory_, but _Toonami_. Yes, you just read that right: _**Toonami**_. The version for this story: TOM 3.0. The good TOM before TOM 4.0 took over for the last year and the very sad ending of the most beloved block on Cartoon Network ever. I really want anime back on Cartoon Network, and I mean good anime, not just the single night on Adult Swim or ANYTHING from 4Kids! (God forbid them! ... depending on _how well_ they do.)

A fanboy can dream, can't we?

So, not only did I add TOM and mention a Clyde, but those two bots from the last year on Toonami, but I gave them a much needed make-over, redesigning them to make them much like TOM 3.0 and give them better jobs than what was 4.0. I know they are hated, but they had potential, and I like the green guy, so please just stick with me on this. Besides, it's not like I'm going to add them every time that I do a Traverse Town chapter. And if you are wondering about SARA... I'll get to her soon.

So... is there anything I want to say? Oh yes, there is! I need to talk about the original characters in this chapter as well! As you can see, when I was planning this, my friend said that Ed is more destructive if he was going to use magic, so Fire and Thunder are perfect for the Ed. As to balance him out, I made his hat into a character, after making Ed's design to include a face on his hat. And for the shopkeepers Double D met... just look at _Deadlocked_ to get who they are. They are the ones replacing Huey, Dewy and Louie in this story, and... well, I decided just to stick with those two instead of doing extra.

... There's not a whole lot I am working with here, but again, this is a lot more thought out. At least I know what I am doing here.

Oh, and a small note: I know there isn't such a thing as Terra and Shade spells, but I want to give Ed a few more spells to balance out his lack of other spells. Besides, there needs to be a few new spells in the first place, right?

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. It's time to begin the first ring, which I dubbed the Golden Age ring, and I'm kicking things off with a Cartoon Cartoon classic.


	4. Act I, Ch 04: Townsville I

And so, it is time to begin the journey to other worlds and get going with the Eds' first visit. Like I said, this story is going to revolve around Cartoon Network shows, not the Disney films, so I am making the Eds feel more at home. Besides, there are a few crossovers that the Eds hadn't done yet involving other shows (and I mean like an EEnE x random show crossover). So there may be some firsts in this story, but otherwise I can be wrong.

So for this act, we are going back to the glory days of Cartoon Network, back when it was starting up with the classic shorts of decades past, only to move into original content. This, my friend, is the Golden Age of Cartoon Network. And to begin this ring (act), I will start it off with another Cartoon Cartoon classic (the first being the Eds since I started with them at the beginning), this coming from a respected creator we know today. Just look at the title and you'll see what show I am talking about.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Four - The City of Townsville

OOO

The Eds are now in the open vastness that is space, floating in their newly acquired ship, a Gummi ship made by the boy genius Dexter. The ship design is built much like a stealth ship with a long nose, the cockpit hiding underneath the belly, two long narrow wings design for speed and sharp turns with two guns hidden underneath each wing, a turret on top hidden with the body of the ship, and four small thrusters revolving around a much larger thruster. The color scheme is a dark theme, as requested by Eddy, with colors ranging from reds to blacks and oranges. The Eds are please by the design of their ship and they are glad they are the ones piloting this ship.

With their ship dubbed the _Midnight Hummer_, the Eds are sitting inside of the cockpit, with Double D at the controls, Eddy sitting in the co-pilot's seat and Ed wandering about the cabin. With some music playing in the background, Eddy is tapping his foot with the music as Ed sneaks up right behind the Ed.

"So where do you think we're going?" he asked.

Eddy jumps from his seat and grabs his shield to use its edge on Ed's neck, before realizing who it is. "Ed, don't sneak up on me!" he snapped.

"But Eddy, I just want to know where we are going," the tall Ed whines.

"And please tell him," the tall Ed's hat stated. "I don't want to spend my time with you lot dealing with him whining."

"Again Ed, we don't know where are going," said Eddy, "You asked us a bunch of times earlier and the answer is always the same." He looks over to a screen on the dashboard. "Maybe if you look at this, this will tell you."

"Eddy, that's a radar," the smart Ed explained. "That's use to signal any planets, ships or enemies within a certain radius of our ship. If you want to look at where we are going, try finding a map."

Ed backs away from the controls as Eddy went back to listening to the music. As he is tapping along to the music, the small Ed takes notice of some of the controls on the dashboard, each differently colored button evenly space out and label for each function. Eddy scans over the buttons, resisting the urge to push them, as he does not want to overcome the urge of being like Ed and push a random button that could send their ship into a spiral of doom or worse. The small Ed backs away from the controls and leans back in his chair, only to look out into the emptiness that is space and hope that there is something out there.

Ed is wandering around in the back, trying to find something that he can do to keep him entertain. As he wanders about, he discovers some parts of the ship the others did not realize, finding a small kitchen with some food, a small turret control for the guns on the wings, a tight turret control room to man the turret on top, the boiler room for the engine, and a guest room for when the Eds pick someone up from another world. Since one of their goals is to get the others, that is if they survive, this room will house them when the Eds are exploring others worlds before returning to Traverse Town.

As the other Eds are looking around, Double D accidentally pushes a button and an image appears on their windshield. On the screen, the boy genius Dexter is facing in the other direction with his glasses off, and he pulls his glasses up to his face to check them before placing them back on his face and spinning around his chair. As soon he faces the screen, he jumps back in horror upon seeing the faces of Eddy and Double D on his side of the link.

"_What the...? What are you two doing on my computer?_" Dexter asked.

"Your computer?" echoed Eddy.

"I'm sorry about interrupting you Dexter," Double D apologizes. "We were just looking for a map and then I hit this button and..."

"_Say it no more_," said Dexter. "_I can understand. Now, since you managed to connect to me, allow me to explain the situation to you about how this is going to work. As you know, this was going to be one of my ships but since you three came along, I decided to make a few changes to the control deck._

"_For instance, I add this communication link that allows for me to contact you or you need to contact me in case of emergencies. And, if I remember correct, I got the guest room built for those who want to travel with me..._"

"But what about a map?" asked Eddy.

"_A map?_"

"Yes a map," said Double D.

Dexter's eyes begin to wander off. "_Well... there wasn't any time for me to install one, since you three came all of..._"

"So what you are saying is that we are basically flying around blindly?" Double D asked.

"_No! ... Well yes, but that doesn't mean that you three are going to be without a map for a long time_," said Dexter. "_In fact, I like to add that I can access the ship from here, so if there is something that I need to add, it will go into the ship and you should have access to it_."

"So that will mean that..." Eddy's sentence is cut off by the sound of beeping coming from the radar. On the radar, there are several red blips flashing, with all of them huddling together, and Double D cuts the feed to see what is going on out in space. Through the windshield, they can see that there are a dozen or more strange ships coming at them, with all bearing a marking on them.

"What are those things?" asked Eddy.

"_Those are Gummi Heartless_," replied Dexter through an intercom. "_They're not much of a threat when you have weapons, but if I were you, I better get a sharpshooter on either the fire turret or the gravity turret and deal with them before they destroy the ship_."

"But how exactly...?"

Again Eddy's sentence is cut off, only this time it came from a large explosion going off near the Eds. The two Eds sitting at the controls look out the window to notice a purple glow coming from where the explosion was, and they can feel the shockwave slightly rocking their ship once it sails by them. After the explosion, the Eds notice that the number drop sharply, reducing the group of Heartless down to two.

The Eds can hear some clanking behind them and they turn around to see Ed's head sticking out from the ceiling. "Guys, I found some controls up here!" he shouted. "I set off some fireworks as well."

"That was a gravity cannon!" Normadomus shouted. "Do you have any idea how powerful that cannon is?"

"Powerful enough to take down a small fleet of Heartless?" asked Double D flatly, pointing outside.

Eddy got up from his seat and he hurries himself to where the turret controls the guns on the wing, which are the fire turrets. The small Ed opens the hatch that goes into the control pad for the turrets and he got himself into the small room, getting all the controls in front of him so that the guns are operational and ready to fire. With a screen in front of him that serves as a window, Eddy locks on the two remaining Heartless and fires out streams of fire bullets at the ships.

The Heartless did their best at dodging the fire steams but both went down, due to that both ships are designed for close combat than long range shooting like the Eds' ships. As soon as both ship went down, the two Eds at the turrets got out and they walk up to check out the work they down, noticing that they receive some items from the wreckage. On a small monitor, there are some supplies that Dexter is re-routing to him and a three-dimensional symbol with a high three digit number next to the symbol.

"Is that cash?" asked Eddy.

"_That will be Munny_," replied Dexter. "_It's a form of currency that worlds take. I would rather take it, but you three are going to need some Munny if you want to get around_."

"Sweet, and at 595, we are set!" said the greedy Ed. "Thanks Dex!"

"No worries. Anyway, good luck to you Ed boys. It appears that a world is coming up so get yourselves ready for landing."

As Dexter just said, there is a world coming into view, and the Eds look out through the windshield to take a look at the world they are visiting. It is a strange world to them, as they view worlds as round planets with some form of terrain and atmosphere. But this world is different from the worlds they have seen, as this world is sprouting buildings all over, with apartments, skyscrapers, a town hall, a volcano, and a two story building with three worlds.

The Eds are grinning excitedly, as they are all ready to begin exploring some new territory for the first time in a long time. Eddy got into his seat and throws everyone a large smirk. "So what are we waiting for? Let's head down there and make some..."

"Eddy, just listen to me," the smart Ed sighs. "I just want to go over some of the things TOM mentioned while we are exploring these worlds."

Eddy hesitated to move, but he lets out a sigh. "All right," is his response.

"All right. Now... the first thing is that when we get there, we must not get involve in any of the world's affairs, as in we should not be meddling with other peoples' affairs. Second is that we are here to look for not only our friends but these 'keyholes,' which are supposedly use to be a link to the world's heart."

"I know of a world that has a heart," said Ed.

"These keyholes are the links to the heart of the worlds, as if the Heartless were to get to them, the world will be gone," said Normadomus. "It's the same thing as with your world. If they get to the heart, then it's only time before the world goes."

"But why?" asked Eddy.

"They seek hearts for one thing... power," the hat said, "power that will fill their never-ending hunger, only to grow and feed on more until they reach the heart of the worlds and devour that. And when the heart is gone, they will move onto the next world and the chain of events will link together until they find the king of all hearts..."

Before Normadomus can finish, a warning signal begins to flash, telling them that they are entering the world's gravitational pull, and everyone got themselves strap in for the ride down to the world. Double D got himself ready for the descend, remembering some training some time ago about how to pilot a space shuttle during re-entering, and the Eds are now getting themselves into the atmosphere of a new world.

OOO

The world is a very large city, comprising of many apartments, businesses, and other formatives. There is a suburb area fill with small houses and a school for children to attend. Hidden inside of the city is a park, in which is home to a strange oddity. This city is one of the few, if not only, cites to house a volcano. Everyone is not in fear, as they all are aware the volcano will not blow for years to come, due to a building that is on top of the volcano is draining out the magma for power

This is what makes up the city of Townsville.

The _Midnight Hummer_ sails through the skies above the city, with Double D looking around for a place to land their ship. He spots out one good location and he pilots the ship to land. Once grounded, the Eds take their first steps out into the open, only to see that they are way high up off the ground.

"Uh, this was part of your plan, correct?" asked Eddy.

"Sort of," the smart Ed replied. "It was my assumption to land up here so that we can hide the ship. I just never thought of a way to get down."

The Eds are standing up on top of a free-standing building with a large round observation deck going around. With the Eds expose to the open air, they can feel the gusting wind blowing all around them. Then the three of them begin to bicker, arguing over how to get down from where they are at and how they should go about the landing, and they change their attitude from anger to fear.

The boys start to panic, coming to the realization that they are going to be stuck up on top of the building for the rest of their natural life. All three start to cry out in horror, with their screams echoing off the buildings and going all the way down to the streets. The three are running about, flailing their arms in the air, as they have no option but to panic about not getting down from where they are at.

That is... until they begin to feel something grabbing at their rear ends. Eddy and Double D look down below them to notice that they are sailing over the streets, with a little girl carrying them. They look over to Ed and they notice that he is also flying, all thanks to a girl helping him, and last they check to see that there is a girl carrying their ship as well. The boys look in discomfort as the girls are grabbing them, but they did not stay like that for long as the girls lower the Eds down on the street and place their ship to the side. The boys look to notice that they are in the suburbs of the city, near a white two-story house with three large windows on the second story.

"Hi, how's it going?" one of the girl asked.

The Eds focus their attention on the girls before them, noticing that these girls are no older than girls in kindergarten. The girls look very much like sisters, even triplets by their size and their very unique shape, but each one is very different from the other. The one on the right is a cheerful little girl with her blonde hair tied up in pigtails and she is wearing a blue dress. The girl in the middle is keeping a theme of red, with her hair red, a large bowtie in her hair, her dress is red and her large eyes are red. And the girl on the left is giving off a more serious attitude, with her mean green eyes staring at the Eds, her hair jet black and she is wearing a dress similar in design to the other girls but is green.

The girls are presenting a curious look at the Eds, seeing their strange appearance as the Eds are mirroring the same curiosity with the girls.

"So… what brings you here?" asked the red-haired girl.

The Eds look at each other, hoping that one of them will come up with a reason for them being here, and Ed takes a step forward before the others step in to stop him from speaking his mind.

"Are you guys like aliens or something?" asked the blonde girl.

The boys stop their struggling and they look at each other once again to come up with an answer. Upon hearing this question, they begin to chatter among themselves, each coming up that the Eds are not aliens in belief of being extraterrestrial.

"Well, it all depends on the definition 'alien,'" said Double D. "There is more meanings to that word, and if you're asking that we are from another land, then yes we are."

"So then… if you are aliens, then I guess we should kick your butts!" the black-haired girl said, getting ready for a fight.

"Whoa, we just got here!" stated Eddy, grabbing his shield.

"And we're not here for a fight," said Double D, getting himself ready to get his Keyblade out.

"Well, you guys don't look any aliens we fought before," the red haired girl said, trying not to get them into any mindless fight with the Ed boys.

"Fought? You mean you girls are superheroes?" asked Ed, getting excited about the change of subject.

"Yes. I'm Blossom," the red haired girl said.

"I'm Bubbles," said the blonde.

"And I'm Buttercup," the black haired girl said.

"And we're the Powerpuff Girls!" the girls shouted at once.

The Eds applaud for the girls' pose. "Well, we are the Eds, with Eddy, me as Edd with two Ds and Ed," said Double D, going from left to right.

"Please to meet you Ed boys," said the blonde Bubbles. "Welcome to our lovely city of Townsville."

"Yeah, it's a real pleasure," the black haired Buttercup said sarcastically.

"Why were you three up so high?" asked the red haired Blossom. "Were you trying to land somewhere to the ground but found that to be a better place to land?

"If you must know, we were hoping to hide our ship from everyone and we can get to it once we are done here," explained Double D.

"Then why don't you land somewhere close to the ground?" Bubbles asked. "Wouldn't that be easier?"

Eddy and Double D blush bright red and they turn away from the girls, realizing that they were acting like fools earlier about how to get down from the building and how dumb they were acting as well. Ed, on the other hand, is too busy dealing with the thought of them being real aliens to this world.

"I told you," whispers Eddy, covering his face.

"Well, it's still better to play it safe than get into trouble," Double D whispers back.

"Well, no matter what, we better get to school," said Blossom. "We'll see you later."

The girls give the Eds a friendly before shooting up into the skies as lights and flying over the suburbs to the local kindergarten. The Eds watch as the Powerpuff Girls fly off, leaving them to be right in front of their home. As the light fades away, the boys talk among themselves about how they are going to go about and traveling around the city, all in search of the keyhole and the other children, only to get a strange sensation running throughout their bodies. They look down the road to notice that there are Heartless, all rising up from the ground, and the Eds step back in fright.

Along with the Shadows, there are a few large round Heartless that are wearing clothing that barely fit the Heartless and a metal hat on their heads, and some small looking Heartless with a gray body, which has the Heartless emblem on them and thin red outline, a orange hat covering their heads and two twig-like legs. The Eds got their weapons ready, with Eddy and Ed quickly drawing theirs leaving Double D to gather some time to summon Joker's Wild and get it in his hand. Once set, Eddy and Double D went first and got to work, cutting their way through the Shadows before colliding into the bellies of the large Heartless.

The two boys bounce off of the bellies, with Double D stumbling and Eddy using his shield as a brake. "Man, that felt like we were hitting Jell-o," the small Ed said.

"May be, but why didn't our attacks work?" ponders Double D.

"Kids, those are Large Bodies!" stated Normadomus. "You can't hurt them from the front! You got to get behind them and deal damage to them that way!"

"Deal them from the..." As Double D is saying this, he quickly formulates a plan and he whispers it to Eddy. The small Ed gets the idea in his head and he takes his shield to throw it, allowing it to veer off before boomeranging back to the Ed. As it is coming back, the edge cuts right through one of the Large Body's back and making it disappear, and a large heart floats up into the sky.

"Let me try!" said Ed excitedly, getting the Nerd's Tools ready as a combat staff, not a magic staff.

"Uh, you know you're a wizard, right?" said Normadomus. "How about you show them some of your skills?"

Ed gives his hat a nod and he aims his staff at one of the Large Body before locking onto one of the airborne Heartless. The Ed grows a wide smile as he charges up a Fire spell, and he calls out the spell, hoping that his attack will hit the small Heartless. Instead, his staff is aiming in the opposite direction, where the fireball is growing on the sphere sitting on the upside-down controller, not the joystick, and the fireball shoots down towards the asphalt and creates a large explosion to knock Ed off of his feet.

The tall Ed recovers from his fall and he brushes himself off, only to notice a Shadow and a floating Heartless coming right at them. Normadomus unzips his mouth wider and he unleashes a chilling breeze from the opening of Ed's hat. After a few seconds, the Shadow and the flying Heartless is frozen in motion, all cover in ice, and Ed takes his staff to fire a Fire spell, which not only melt the ice but damage the two Heartless. With those two down, Ed runs up to help his friend, who are dealing with one Large Body and trying to take it down.

Eddy takes his shield and tries to toss it, but the Large Body catches the shield in mid-flight and it tugs on Eddy to bring him closer. Double D grabs a hold of one of Eddy's legs and plants the Keyblade in the ground to prevent them from going anywhere. The three are struggling, with Eddy getting tug on by both his leg and his arm, and both Double D and the Large Body are pulling as hard as they can in this tug-of-war. But the Large Body is winning, due to its immense strength, and Double D begins to lose grip on his Keyblade, but he is not going to lose Eddy.

Just as the Large Body gives one good tug, it can feel a powerful punch coursing throughout its back and the Heartless starts to roll forward. The large Heartless drops Eddy and Double D removes his Keyblade, only to be flattened by the rolling Heartless and Eddy dealing the final blow to the Large Body. The Eds all look towards who got the Large Body rolling, only to see that Blossom deliver the punch, Bubbles taking care of some Shadows, and Buttercup holding on to some flying Heartless.

"I said I want to take care of the Large Bodies," Buttercup pouted.

"But there was only one of those left and you were closer to those Grey Caprices anyway, so there," said Blossom.

"The Shadows are done for," said Bubbles, cheerful as always. She looks over to the flatten Double D and flies over to see if he is all right. "Are you OK? Do you need any help?"

"No... I'll be fine," he said, slowly getting himself back up on his feet.

"Here, allow me," Normadomus said, with his mouth glowing green. The zipper mouth opens wide and a bell chiming can be heard, with a soothing green light illuminating over Double D. After a second, he can feel his entire body without a single sense of pain anywhere. "And that is a Cure," the hat said.

"Thank you for that," said Double D.

"So it looks like you three can handle yourselves against the Heartless huh?" asked Blossom, flying up to be closer to them.

"Well, this is our second attempt at fighting them and our first with these new weapons of ours," the smart Ed replied.

"That's neat," the red haired girl said, taking a look at the Eds' weapons. "So you are wielding a Keyblade huh?"

"A Keyblade?" echoed Buttercup, taking a look at Double D's weapon. "Yeah, we heard about that, but we never really seen one before."

"You heard about it?" parroted Double D. "What kind of information do you girls know about the Keyblade?"

"Well, it is said that the Keyblade can allow the user to wield magic and take down Heartless," said Bubbles. "Plus it can unlock any lock, and locking locks as well."

The Eds realize that the smart Ed's weapon is holding a lot of secrets, and here the Powerpuff Girls are giving away what they know about it. As far as they know so far, it can lock and unlock locks, which is one of the goals for the Eds, and it can allow Double D to use magic just like Ed. Question is: what can Double D learn with the Keyblade?

"Hey, if you guys need a tour around town, we'll be happy to do so," said Blossom.

"And this is for free, right?" asked Eddy, making sure that they don't need to pay.

"No, it's 500 Munny," replied Buttercup.

"What!" shouted all three Eds, shock to hear that their Munny is going to go to waste.

"Buttercup, we don't need their Munny," Bubble stated. "Don't worry, we are giving this tour for free."

The Eds breathe a sigh of relief, now knowing that they do not need to pay for a tour of the city of Townsville. The girls fly around to get behind the Eds and each of them got a hold on each Ed, with one girl lifting up one boy, and the girls begin to fly off with the Eds along for the ride.

OOO

Within the city sits the dormant volcano, where it is home to a laboratory on top. This laboratory resembles much like an observation station, with a large telescope aiming high to the heavens above, a round design for the place to spin, and several tubes going down into the volcano to retrieve the magma for energy. All while it seems to be peaceful from the outside, inside is an entire different story, with within housing a large laboratory fill with electronics, equipments and machines for the owner to use.

And the owner of this volcano observatory is standing next to a window with his arms behind his back, staring out into the streets to see people running in fear of the Heartless. This man is no ordinary man but a monkey, a chimpanzee rather, and he is a very unique chimp. He has black fur coating most of his body, with his expose skin showing a strange green for skin. The chimp is wearing a tight purple suit with a white belt keeping a hold on the chimp's waist, along with a pair of white gloves and boots, a flowing purple cape, and a large cylinder helmet protecting his head.

Sirens went off and the chimp did not bother to turn around. He looks through the glass to notice that several monkey-like Heartless are attacking the intruder, and every last of the Heartless is brought down by the intruder. Once the last monkey went down, the chimp turns around to come face-to-face with the intruder, who turns out to be the Unversed wolf Blitzer.

"What do you want this time?" the chimp asked.

"I'm here to check up on your progress," replied Blitzer. "Any luck whatsoever?"

"No, I have not seen any signs of this Pure Hearted that you seek of, nor of this Keyblade weapon too," the chimp responded. "It took me a whole month to scan every inch of this blasted city and not one thing."

"I see. But have you found any leads?"

"None. I keep telling you, I keep on finding nothing and I will keep on finding nothing, because there is nothing in this city for you to find!"

"Look, I know that there is a Pure Hearted in this city," the wolf snapped. "My keen sense of smell can't lie!"

"Well maybe you should get your nose check out. Maybe it is full of something to make you think that there are one of those things here in Townsville."

"Still, I can't lie if there is a Pure Hearted or a Keyblade here in this city," said Blitzer. "If you are certain that you can't find a Pure Hearted, then I can tell you where to find a Keyblade."

The chimp's curiosity picks in. "Go on."

"You see, there is a Keyblade that we are looking some time back here in this city. I know that you have a few Heartless that can take of the wielder, and one that is of your creation, so maybe you can use them to take the Keyblade."

"But what about you?" asked the chimp.

"I need to attend some business with Father," Blitzer replied. "We are currently working on getting the other Pure Hearted and then discuss about how to get them together once we get our hands on the Keyblade."

The wolf begins to make his way towards the door, but the chimp stops Blitzer in his tracks. "Hold on! What do you know about the Chimera that I, Mojo Jojo, have deliberately been keeping it a secret for so long?"

Blitzer gives his best at doing a dog style shrug. "I have my inside sources," is his response.

The chimp is standing still, processing the last sentence in his large mind before calling up a Heartless monkey. This monkey appears to be a female, with its fur-like skin purple, donning a bow on its head and other female accessories, and is wielding a slingshot in hand. "Snipey, please make sure that our guest makes his way down the mountain," the chimp said politely.

The monkey Heartless returns a nod and it walks up to the Unversed to lead it out of the laboratory. Once the wolf is out, the chimp turns his attention to a work table that is being hold up by chains. He walks up to the table and he pulls on the cloth covering the table, revealing a large machine-like Heartless that looks like it came out of one bad science fiction movie.

"Soon, I will finish my redesigning of this Chimera and I, Mojo Jojo, shall use this Heartless to finally take down those retched Powerpuff Girls!" he stated before going into a maniacal laughter and monkey howling.

OOO

Now sailing through the city of Townsville, the Powerpuff Girls are toting the Eds along for a tour of their city. They started out in the neighborhood where the girls live, going from their home to the elementary where they go to school. From there, the girls show the Eds every nook and cranny that makes up the city of Townsville, going from some of the businesses, to the park that houses the volcano and over to the town hall.

"Wow, who knew the city can be so... boring," said Eddy.

"But I thought the city was a fun place," said Ed.

"It was until that scam went broke," the greedy Ed mumbles.

"So are you three really enjoying this?" asked Blossom.

"Well, it certainly does beat traveling on foot," the smart Ed stated.

As they are traveling, the Powerpuff Girls notice a string of attacks from below, and they quickly zip down to help out the people on the street. As for the Eds... they are let go so fast that they are still hovering in the air before gravity kicks and starts sending them back down to Earth. All three Eds are grabbing onto their hats, with Double D keeping a death grip on his ski hat, and Ed begins to spin forwards so that Normadomus can pull off a large Blizzaga spell. The larger version of Blizzard is spreading throughout the street, creating a large wall of ice for the Eds to use to skate down safely.

Once the ice hardens, Eddy takes off his shield and he got both feet on the underside, gripping on tightly as he hits the ice and barrels down the slippery surface. Ed is next to hit the ice, as he spins around in time so that his behind is hitting the ice instead of his face. However, this is not the case for Double D, as the poor Ed impacts the ice with his face and his tongue got caught. All three of them are skating along the ice, as Double D is stretching his tongue as far as it can as all three got to the bottom.

Once at the bottom, Eddy and Ed got onto their feet to notice that the girls are taking a group of Heartless, with some looking very much like monkeys, and Double D comes sliding with the tip of his tongue very high up on the ice wall. Then the ice begins to crack and the tongue whiplashes, causing a chunk of the ice to fly from the ice wall and down towards the Heartless. The other Eds watch as the fallen ice sails overhead before crashing into the ground, knocking away the remaining Heartless and causing them to disappear. After the impact, Double D got up and he starts to roll up his very long tongue.

"Cartoon physics, you got to love them," said the smart Ed, rolling up his tongue.

"I may have said this before, but I am really hating slapstick," said Eddy, recalling saying something similar before.

"How come Double D got to pull something funny?" asked Ed, a bit sad.

"Let's not worry about me for now," said Double D. "We need to help the..."

"Help who?" asked Bubbles.

The Eds notice that the girls are up near them and they look behind them that all of the Heartless are gone. The three boys are baffled by the turn of events, but it dawns on them that the girls are superheroes after all. It is their duty to help out the citizens in this city whenever danger calls, and they will be there to protect them from whatever threat is terrorizing Townsville.

"Uh, it's nothing," replied Double D. "Nothing at all."

"Really?" questioned Blossom. "Then if you guys want to fight the Heartless, all you have to do is ask."

The Eds look at each other and they quickly turn away from each other, starting to blush up again for their embarrassment. Really, they are giving their best at being helpful to the girls, but their mission is getting in the way and the Eds never really dealt with such beings from outside of their world before.

The girls respond with giggles from the Eds' embarrassment. "It's all right, there's plenty of Heartless roaming the city," Blossom said. "I'm sure you guys can have your fair share at them."

"That is if we don't beat you to the punch," added Buttercup.

"There's something about that girl that I don't like," mumbles Eddy.

"What was that? You want to say something to my face?"

"Hey, I wasn't talking to you, you little..."

"Eddy please! We're not here to get into a fight!" shouted Double D, using what strength in his body to hold the small Ed back, while Ed intervenes and begins pushing against Eddy.

"Buttercup, why are you even bothering to fight them?" asked Blossom, with Bubbles also keeping Buttercup from going at Eddy. "They seem to be nice boys, so please take it easy."

The two opposing forces are in a stare-down, with both giving a glaring blank stare into each eyes. The two team members on each side use every ounce of their strength to keep the greedy Ed and the green Powerpuff Girl from brawling and causing massive property damage, but one single call of help stop the two sides from restraining and they tune in to hear where the scream is coming from. The girls turn to each other and give each other a nod before facing the Eds.

"Sorry, but we got our jobs to do," said Blossom. "Maybe we'll meet up later?"

The Eds look at each other again, trying to come up with a good response. "Uh... how about..."

Before Double D can finish his sentence, the girls are sailing into the air and above the ice wall. Their light trails are visible for only a few seconds before disappearing, leaving only the Eds to go in one direction as the large ice wall is leaving them block off from one part of the city. The Eds could go after the girls, but they much rather go find another route than find a way to bring down all of that ice.

"So where do we go?" asked Ed.

"Well, since we are on our mission, I guess we should search for the keyhole," said Double D.

"But how? In case you didn't know Sock-head, we're in the middle of a freaking city! There are probably millions of those keyholes throughout this city!"

Double D lets out a heavy sigh. "Eddy, I'm pretty sure that the keyhole that we are looking for have more of a symbolic theme," he said. "I'm pretty sure that my Keyblade can lock any keyhole, but not to the world's heart."

"Then where do we begin? Like I said, we're in the middle of a city! It's going to take us forever to find the right one!"

"How about we start from the beginning?" pitched Ed.

The other Eds begin to ponder on this idea, trying to get what Ed is saying. He does have a point, as there can be a chance that the keyhole the boys are looking for could be hiding where they landed or where their ship is currently at now. But that still leaves them with no leads, as it involves more searching, and the Eds do not want to go back to the free-standing tower or to the girls' neighborhood.

As the Eds are planning what to do, they can hear the sound of tires screeching and they look to notice a car driving out of control and heading right for them. However, this is no ordinary car, as this car is a Heartless, with the emblem as a hood ornament, its front grill looking like razor teeth, and the overall appearance appearing very cartoonish. The Eds jump out of the way as the car Heartless zooms right pass them, only to drive up the ice wall and use the wall to draft around and aim right back at the Eds.

Double D got his Keyblade ready and Ed prepares to do a Fire spell, but the car got its sight on Eddy and it begins to rev right towards him. Ed steps in and switches his spell for a Thundara, sending a powerful lightning strike at the car and knocking it back. The Heartless rolls for a bot before catching itself on all four wheels and it tries again at charging, but the smart Ed steps in this time and the Heartless collides directly with the Keyblade. Splitting right in half, the car disappears as it continues to travel on, and the heart of the car floats up into the heavens above.

"Man, what was that guy's problem?" asked Eddy. "Did he have a grudge against us?"

"Eddy, that wasn't a normal car," stated Double D. "That was a Heartless trying to get us."

"That was some Hot Rod," said Ed, making revving noises, while his hat sighs.

"Is he always like this?" the hat asked.

"Not all the time," answered Double D. "He is random, but he does have a limit for all of his moments."

Ed stops his revving to tune his ears to the surrounding area. "Do you hear monkeys?" he asked.

The other Eds put a hand to their ears and they listen in on any howling or calling of monkeys. To them, they could be hearing the sounds coming from a zoo, but they do not remember a zoo in the city, so this is strange to them. They do hear some screeching, but the boys look up to notice several blue and orange monkeys dropping from the rooftops and from the ice wall. The monkeys gather in a ring formation, surrounding the Eds as more and more drop to the ground.

Upon closer inspection, the Eds notice that these monkeys are more Heartless, bearing the emblem on all of their chests. Each monkey is different however as there are two types of them, with one being blue in color and sporting large paws with claws ready for swiping, and another one being orange with a more female appearance and wielding a slingshot. The Eds groan upon how the random encounter came to be and they ready themselves for a fight, but none of the monkeys show signs of fighting back.

The Eds look in confusion as to why the Heartless is fighting them, until the monkeys step out of the way for a figure, a chimpanzee, to walk down a pathway the Heartless made for him and walk up to the surprised Eds. To them, they are seeing a well dress chimp with a large dome sitting on its head and a purple cape blowing into the breeze, and Ed bends down to notice the green skin. From behind the chimp is another monkey Heartless, except that this monkey is purple in color and it is similar in appearance to the orange monkeys.

The purple monkey begins to chatter something and the chimp nods to this. "Thank you Snipey," the chimp said before turning to the Eds. "So, from what I hear from my Sniper Wild and from another source is that one of you possess such a powerful key-like sword known as the Keyblade, correct?"

Eddy and Double D look at each other, not in worry about the chimp asking about the Keyblade but in confusion on how fast the chimp is talking, as Ed is busy staring at the chimp's skin. Eddy faces the chimp and gives the animal a stern look. "What is it for you to know?"

"You see, I am looking for this Keyblade to one of my employers and he, in return, will give me something that will finally get rid of those dreadful Powerpuff Girls!"

The boys throw themselves back in shock and they got their weapons ready to fight, which in return cause the monkey Heartless to get into a fighting pose. Even the purple monkey, which is a Sniper Wild, got its slingshot ready, but the chimp lowers the weapons to continue the conversation.

"Surely you boys know where I, Mojo Jojo, can find this mystical weapon that holds unknown power?" the villain asked. "You seem like the kind to know something about an artifact like this Keyblade and I demand to know some answers before I resort to the Bouncewilds and the Powerwilds behind me."

"Like our clothes are a give-away," said Eddy.

Double D lets out a hiss and points out the Eds' clothing, allowing the greedy Ed to remember that their clothes had changed upon arriving in Traverse Town. The Eds did not bother to respond to the chimp Mojo's demand, so the said chimp turns to face the group of Heartless and lets out a loud enough snap for all of them to hear. Upon hearing this, all of the Bouncewilds and Powerwilds begin charging at the Eds.

Ed takes his staff and twirls it around before aiming it at the crowd, and he lets rip a powerful Thundara spell, as Eddy takes the Jumbo Jawbreaker and tosses it towards the monkeys. Double D prepares his Keyblade in defense in case any Heartless break the other's offense, but he notices that Eddy's shield got caught in Ed's lightning attack and bolts of lightning jolt out from the shield as the metal shield hovers above the Bouncewilds and Powerwilds. The smart Ed shakes this off and he makes an attempt for Mojo, but the Sniper Wild steps in and fires a shot from its slingshot, which collides into Double D and knocking him back a few feet.

The flying shield is taking out a large chunk of the Heartless, leaving a few surviving members for the Eds to fight. Mojo looks around for something that he can use to bring the odds into his favor and he takes notice of the towering ice wall that is still standing behind the Eds. The villain grows a wide smile, as he takes out a gun of some sort and he takes aim at a weak point on the wall. Eddy takes notice of this and he tugs back to allow his shield to come back to him to allow the shield to deflect the shot.

Mojo fires his gun, and as Eddy planned, the shield deflects the shot, and in the slight confusion, Double D tries again at Mojo, but the Sniper Wild got in the middle again. However, the deflected shot crashes near the two forces and it startles the purple monkey enough to get out of the way and for Double D to finally take a swing. Mojo notice the Keyblade coming his way and he catches the blade as it makes its way down, and the force of the swing causes Mojo to sink slightly into the ground.

Double D blinks in awe by what strength he is using. "Am... am I really doing that?" he asked.

Mojo growls at this and he takes a fist to implant it into Double D's stomach, causing him to lunge forward and knock back towards his friends on his back. Luckily, the smart Ed is still holding on to the Keyblade, which will be a good thing had Mojo managed to steal it from his hands.

"Enough of this! I have enough of your stalling," howled Mojo. "I demand that you hand over the Keyblade immediately or else I, Mojo Jojo, will have to resort to my ultimate..."

Before Mojo can finish his sentence, the four can hear the ice cracking from behind and they look to note that the wall is finally breaking down. On the other side, they can see a bright red light and some steam, which means that someone is using a heating laser to melt the ice. As the beam penetrates through, the ice creates cracks all over before finally snapping off one large chunk and collapsing to the ground. Mojo looks in anger to see that it is the Powerpuff Girls who brought the wall down, while the Eds are happy to see the girls.

The three superheroes fly down to the street level and they got into a pose, pointing straight at Mojo. "Not so fast, Mojo Jojo!" the Powerpuff Girls shouted at once.

"Ooh look, it's the Powerpuff Girls. I am so scared now, for there is nothing that I can do to defeat such three sweet little girls," the villain said sarcastically.

"Cut it Mojo," growls Buttercup. "Just what harebrain scheme are you gonna try this time?"

"Huh? Harebrain?" echoed Mojo. "I will show you harebrain."

The chimp pulls out a black remote and he pushes down on the red button. The girls and the Eds wait for whatever Mojo is going to do, only to realize that the chimp is calling for a strange looking Heartless. This Heartless appears to be a large robot, slightly taller than Mojo, and it is a mix-match robot with different parts in different sizes and it is dragging a large scissor hand. The girls and the Eds can only laugh once the Heartless is in full view, leaving Mojo confused about the situation.

"Do you think that this is funny?" he asked. "This is supposed to bring terror into those large eyes of yours!"

"Yeah, like that thing is going to even come close to scaring me," Ed said in between bursts of laughter.

"And that's saying something," said Double D. "He has seen more horror movies to be immune to everything that is remotely scary."

"Still, the Chimera is going to take you down and I, Mojo Jojo, shall finally be victorious in taking down the Powerpuff Girls and I, Mojo Jojo, shall take that Keyblade from your hands!"

"Talk about all bark and no bite," said Eddy. "How about you try something that'll impress all of us and prove you're all show."

Mojo clench a hand into a fist, getting his anger to boil by the greedy Ed's words, and the chimp takes the remote that he has and pushes down on another button. This button triggers a mechanism inside of the robotic Heartless, which is causing the Chimera to expand. The two trios watch as the Chimera continues to expand until it resembles much like an exo-suit that can fit Mojo's figure. With that being said, the chimp jumps up into the cockpit of the new Chimera and he got right to controlling the Heartless, raising up a new four prong scissor hand and a large crushing hand.

"How about now, girls? Does this show you that this is nothing to laugh at, or would you rather have a demonstration as to what this can truly do?" taunts Mojo.

"I rather blast that thing to kingdom come," shouted both Eddy and Buttercup at once.

The girls take the lead and they begin to shower the Chimera with punches, but Mojo takes the crushing hand and smacks the girls, sending them flying towards an apartment as he makes his way towards them. Double D and Eddy charges up and they take their weapons towards the Chimera's legs, but their weapons did not even make a scratch. Ed got himself ready for a Fire attack, but Mojo takes the scissor hand and shoots it straight at the tall Ed, and Ed takes his staff to block the closing of the scissors, preventing him from being chop in half.

Mojo is struggling dealing with six enemies at once, when he is used to dealing with just the Powerpuff Girls, but even with them they are too powerful to the chimp. With that, the Sniper Wild recovers from its scared conditions and it returns to the battle, slingshot in hand and it takes aim at some of the battlers that are still fighting. Double D got his Keyblade and deflect a few of the shots, with one heading right for the Chimera's leg and actually causing some damage, but it rear ends and smacks the small Ed in the head.

The girls recover from their blow and they try again at taking Mojo down, only for the chimp to turn his attention away from Ed and use the scissor hand against the girls. Blossom unleashes her ice breath on the hand, freezing the hand to make it less of a threat, and Buttercup flies in to use her heat vision to cut the hand right off. Once cut, the hand drops to the ground and shatters into pieces, with frozen metal scatter all around the street.

Mojo looks towards the wreckage, growling in anger before unleashing a monkey screech, and he takes his remaining hand to crush the girls. Ed notices this and he rips out another Thundara spell, this time aiming at the tall cylinder head that makes up the Chimera and causing the robot to short circuit. During this time, Double D begins to formulate a plan to take the robot down and he rushes with Keyblade in hand to bring the Heartless down for good. With the Sniper Wild tailing right behind, the monkey got itself ready for a shot, but Eddy got his shield ready to deflect the shot and allow the round to pierce right through the Sniper Wild.

The purple monkey begins to disappear and its heart floating up into the sky and Mojo looks in horror as his best Heartless is defeated by a mere boy. However, he cannot do a single thing as large amounts of electricity is running through the Chimera and through him as well, and Double D got up to the legs to allow a clean sweep right through the legs. With that single blow, the legs buckle and the Heartless starts to collapse, as its weight is no longer supported by its legs and Mojo begins to fall.

"_CURSES_!" the chimp shouted as he falls to the ground.

The rest of the Heartless collapse to the ground, leaving behind a large pile of scrap and junk, and everything begins to disappear, leaving only an injured Mojo and a large heart. The boys and the girls check up on the fallen chimp, only to notice that he has taken damage from his fall, with his clothes torn and part of his helmet broken to reveal a brain underneath. Double D wipes away some bad thoughts and transfers them to Ed, who is grinning brightly over the fallen chimp.

"So I guess that I am going to jail for this?" asked Mojo.

"Oh yeah," said Blossom. "I think that you should learn better on dealing with the Heartless."

After some moments, police arrive on the scene to take the villain Mojo away, only to allow the chimp to grasp on the bars of the police cruiser he is in and cry his way all to jail for his defeat. The Eds and the Powerpuff Girls watch as the police carry Mojo away, only to feel a slight accomplishment in their task. They are happy for it, as the Eds got to take on a villain in a whole new world, and the girls have defeated one of their foes yet again.

OOO

"Well, if it weren't for you Powerpuff Girls, I'm sure that Townsville will be doomed with Mojo running around with that what-cha-ma-doodle."

"Mr. Mayor, that's a Heartless," giggles Bubbles.

"And we don't deserve all of the credit," said Blossom. "The Eds here deserve some of it, as they helped us take down the Heartless and Mojo."

The Mayor, who is a man much shorter than the Powepuff Girls, gives a good look at the Eds with his single staring eye. "Well, if it weren't for you, I'm sure that Townsville will be doomed with Mojo running around with that what-cha-ma-doodle," the man said, repeating most of what he said to the girls.

"Well think nothing of it," said Double D. "We are just wandering passer-bys that somehow got involve in a fight."

"But do we get some kind of reward?" asked Eddy.

The Mayor blinks at the greedy Ed, giving him a blank stare for his outburst. "... I guess that if you are looking for something, I may have something on me," the Mayor said, digging through his pockets. He pulls out some Munny and he presents it to the Eds. "How about 100 Munny?"

"That sounds like a deal!" said Eddy, snatching the Munny. Double D shoots the greedy Ed and holds out his hand, and the small Ed sheepishly hands over the Munny to Double D, just for safe keeping.

"Honestly, if it weren't for the six of you..." the Mayor's sentence trails off, as he realizes that he is repeating himself. For this, a woman in a red business dress steps up and gives a firm cough. "What the Mayor is trying to say is that Townsville is much safer now ever since you six got rid of most of the Heartless in this town."

"Think nothing of it, Miss Bellum," echoes Blossom, taking Double D's exact words.

"Well, we better get going then," the woman said, turning away. "Come along Mayor."

"Right away Miss Bellum," the Mayor replied, tailing the woman.

As the two begin to head back for the city, the Eds turn to face the girls, and the boys extend their hands outward so that the girls can shake them.

"Thanks for helping us out back there," said Double D. "I am not certain that we will ever get through this city without some back-up."

"And we got to work together to fight the Heartless," said Eddy.

"That lady look pretty," mutters Ed.

"Well it was a pleasure teaming up with you boys," said Blossom.

"We did have some fun fighting the Heartless, did we?" said Bubbles.

"Hey, I was going to say that!" stated Buttercup.

The Eds give the girls a handshake and they got a start towards the bridge of their ship. As Double D is walking up, he begins to feel a strange feeling in his chest, and he looks towards the girls' home. He can feel a strange sensation coming from the building, as if the building is hiding the very item they are seeking, and he tries to make for the house but Eddy calls out his name and orders for the Ed to get the ship airborne. Double D shrugs off this feeling and he got inside so that he can get the Eds off this world and onto the next world.

As the _Midnight Hummer_ is sailing through the air, the Powerpuff Girl watches as the ship disappears into space. "There's something that I don't like about that short boy," said Buttercup.

"And I can't shake the feeling that we are going to meet them again," said Blossom.

"Do any of you find that boy with the sock on his head cute?" asked Bubbles.

The girls giggle at this question as they head into their home for the day, allowing them to relax and call it for a day. Far off in the same neighborhood, the beastly Unversed Blitzer look towards the girls' house and he flashes his fangs for a smile. "I just know that there exists a Pure Hearted in this world," he growls softly. "I just know it."

* * *

And so... that is how a world is going to play out. Sort of.

And here's where I mean about sort of: I may have forgotten something here. Don't worry. There is a reason that I have an "I" in the title... you know what I mean. But all in all, this is going to play out much like a normal world in _Kingdom Hearts_... just with Cartoon Network.

Still, for this act, this is more about nostalgia, especially with this world and the next world, as they haven't been on the air for a long time. Plus, Craig McCracken is one of the more respectful creators to come out of Cartoon Network. You got a guy that created not only _the Powerpuff Girls_, but _Foster's_ and worked on the unreleased _Cartoonstitute_ (a variety show similar to _What a Cartoon!_) that gave rise to (some) great pilots and the launch of _Regular Show_. Nice work man!

Now... allow me to be honest. This chapter is much like how I was writing Chapter 10 of _Deadlocked_: it was a hard time to write all of it down and get it on paper. But I manage to get it done and get on with the story. If I didn't get this chapter done on time... well, you'll be missing out on a heck of a chapter for Chapter Five.

And just to let you know, there is going to be more space combat like in the beginning as this story progress. It mixes the linear travel of _Kingdom Hearts I_ with the more action packed version from _Kingdom Hearts II_. ... Now I am thinking of doing the mini Gummi ships and sticking the Eds in them to use. Heh-heh, that'll be awesome. And as for Heartless... I am mixing things up upon when we get to a certain world, along with giving a villain a certain theme (as of Mojo with his Powerwilds, Bouncywilds, and the Sniper Wild). Plus, there are times when I need to come up with my own Heartless... hey, this is a fan-fiction, after all. The same can be said for what I am putting in for the music on the Gummi ship (hint: it's a Lemon Demon song)

... I just want to point something out about my Heartless, Nobody and Unversed. They are going to have major roles in this story, but I am going to feature one of them in a chapter of my choosing, especially when one of them is going to be... and I am going to spoil what is going to happen later.

So once again, I like for you to review. Up next is... well, it's my favorite chapter out of this act and it'll bring some good nostalgia. Trust me, it is good.


	5. Act I, Ch 05: Washington, DC

And now... my favorite chapter out this act. For here, this is the third show world in this Classic act and I am bringing one series that should bring some nostalgic feeling back to you. Plus... this is a first in general! I created a new crossover in this chapter. Whoo-hoo! This calls for cake!

OK, allow me to give you a hint as to what is going to be feature in this chapter: _He's here to save the nation, so stay tune to this story. If not, I will be unemployed._

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Five – One Freaky Capital

OOO

The Gummi ship _Midnight Hummer_ is floating aimlessly through the space that the Eds call home, with the Eds inside waiting around for something new to happen. For the past few minutes, the boys are sitting around, doing all sorts of activities to keep themselves from getting bored, but nothing is proving to work. The Eds are bored and there is nothing that could cure this.

"Man I am bored!" groans Eddy. "Is there another world nearby?"

Double D leans up from his seat to check out the radar. "I'm sorry Eddy, but there is nothing coming up," he answered.

Eddy returns a moan, getting irritated by how there is no sign of a world or enemies that they can attack. The two Eds in the cockpit lean back in their chairs and begin to rest, getting some moments of sleep as their ship continues to drift in space. Ed got up from his seat to check up on his friends, only to find them fast asleep, so this gives him the opportunity to get his hands on the controls and pilot the Gummi ship for himself.

With both hands on the control, the Ed begins to image himself in one of his science fiction movies, seeing the enemy's fleet right behind their ship and it is up to the hero, Ed, to save them. This would spell disaster, but Ed knows very much from these movies, so he begins steering the ship to get everyone on board to safety. While in reality... Ed is only maneuvering the ship around like a madman with nothing to fear around them, and this involuntary action is rocking the whole ship.

Sirens begin to blare, waking both Eddy and Double D from their quick nap, only for both of them to see Ed at the controls and a large blip flashing on the radar. Double D scoots Ed away from the controls and regains full control of their ship, getting the Gummi ship straighten up as they approach whatever is appearing on the radar. And from what they are seeing through the glass, the object of interest is another world.

"Well it's about time," stated Eddy.

"Actually, judging from the amount of time we were in here," said Double D, looking at a clock, "we've been floating in space for only ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? It felt like more than an hour!" the small Ed barked.

"Well, we're at a new world," the smart Ed said.

This world the Eds are heading to resemble buildings that are familiar to the boys, with four buildings being all white, three resembling much like each other and one being a tall pillar. The three normal buildings each have something unique to each one of them, with one having a dome on top, another having a large man sitting in a stone chair, and one being a three-story building. The Eds enter this world, getting themselves ready for their next adventure on another world.

OOO

Their first steps onto the new world are taking them through time and down a sidewalk, with cars from the nineties passing them by as they travel down the sidewalk. The Eds look around at the buildings that surround them, seeing them to be businesses that are selling products that are popular in the nineties, even as going by an electronic store where there are televisions and computers that are nothing like what they seen. Double D keeps his eyes glue to the electronics, as Eddy tugs on the medium Ed's collar to get his attention, only to point towards the object of interest.

"Hey Sock-head, does that remind of you of anything?" asked the greedy Ed.

Double D looks forward; putting one hand over his eyes to get a better look of what Eddy wants him to see. From what he is seeing, the building before them is entirely white, with columns holding up the three-story building and there is a green lawn before this building. The smart Ed snaps out of his surveying pose to realize where they are at.

"Eddy, this is Washington, D.C!" he stated.

"Washington, D.C?" echoed the small Ed. "You mean where the President lived?"

"Exactly! And judging from the age of the electronics and the cars, we must be during the time of when President Clinton was in office!"

Eddy lets out a moan. "Oh this is great," he whines sarcastically. "We're now at the most boring world in the universe."

"You were here before?" asked Ed.

"Yes I was, Ed. This was back during the Safety Patrol, when we had the opportunity to..."

"But aren't there any of those Heartless things that we can fight?" whines Eddy. "It sure beats listen to your boring history lesson."

"Excuse me Eddy, but this is a wonderful opportunity for us to explore Washington, D.C. to see the sights, learn a little something and..."

The smart Ed is cut off as something supersonic whizzes right past the Eds, with the sound of lightning crackling and a white trail is rushing down the street while passing right through traffic. The Eds watch in astonish by what just passed them, with two of them with their jaws hanging open and Ed getting very excited.

"What was that? A Heartless?" asked the greedy Ed.

"Only one way to find out," answered Ed. "Follow that speed demon!"

"Right behind you, you big lug!" stated Eddy.

All three Eds begin to sprint towards where the speeding lightning being is heading to, only to when they made the turn around the corner, they found no trance to where the being could have gone off to. Then the trio hears the sound of shrieking coming from down the way, and they run all the way to make their way to a parking lot to find a fight unfolding. There in the middle of the mess are several black snakes, resembling much like a mix of coral snakes and king cobras, each one of them have arms, and they all have the Heartless emblem on the back of their hoods. The Eds got their respective weapons out for the fight, but the snakes were not interested in them.

Instead, there is a person standing in the very middle of the parking lot and he is standing in a fisticuff pose. He is wearing a full red suit, looking very much like a pair of pajamas, with white gloves and boots to cover his hands and feet. On his chest is a black oval with a yellow "F" and an exclamation point, symbolizing that he is some sort of superhero. He is also wearing a mask over his eyes, and he haves a large volume of black hair sprouting from his head, with two strands that resemble white lightning bolts. And oddly enough about this man...

He is blue.

"What is this guy, someone from a rejected Blue Man Group?" questioned Eddy.

The blue man did not bother to focus his attention towards the Eds. Instead, he is eyeing the Heartless snakes circling around him and on another person standing, or rather sitting, in the parking lot. This person is a she, with most of her body in a skin tight, dark green suit. What is showing for skin is a sickly gray, and her face resembles much like one of the snakes. She own eyes is much of a snake and her make-up is black, with fangs flashing off from her mouth.

"Well, I guess this does it for you," the woman hissed. "Finish him off, my new Silvermouths!"

The Heartless snakes let out a hiss in return, charging forward towards the strange blue man with no hesitation. The blue man is standing around, still keeping the same fisticuff pose, as each one of the Silvermouths get closer and closer with each slitter. Then the blue man jumps up into the air, allowing some of the snakes to attack each other and get tangle up into small balls. The man lands in a clearing and he easily dodges each one of the Silvermouths' bites. The woman is watching in anger as her minions are failing to get the blue man to go down.

And then, as if on cue, Ed shouts out for a Thundara spell, sending out a few bolts of lightning to hit the Silvermouth snakes and knocking them back. The woman is surprise by this sudden attack, and the blue man makes a move towards the woman, but what the woman is sitting on begins to stir, revealing to be a much larger snake, only this one is not a Heartless. The large snake stops the blue man in his tracks, getting the man to stare in wonder into the snake's hypnotizing gaze and away from the escaping woman.

The Eds barge onto the battlefield, with Double D and Ed taking care of the remaining Silvermouths that Ed's spell and the blue man missed, while Eddy is heading for the mysterious woman. The large snake advert its attention towards the small Ed, taking its thick tail and smacks Eddy across the parking lot, only for Eddy to take his shield and use it as a sled to slow him down. This small distraction got the blue man out of the snake's gaze and now planning up a scheme to stop both the woman and the large snake.

He looks over to where two escaping Silvermouths are and he grabs both by their tails, holding them up high and far out so that both of them will not bite him. Then the man tosses both Heartless snakes towards the fleeing woman, with the snakes' mouth catching the woman's arms and pinning her to a brick wall. She struggles to break free, but the force from the throw got the Silvermouths' fangs nail to the wall, so she is stuck to the wall. Now all that leaves is the much larger snake...

Double D bats away one of the Heartless over to where the blue man is and the man swats the snake back over to the Eds, only for Eddy to use the edge of his shield to cut the Silvermouth in half and making it disappear. The Eds got themselves ready to help out the strange man with his fight, but as they got through with the Heartless, the large snake is in a knot, due from being twisted up from chasing the man. The boys look in astonishment by how such one man could take on numerous Heartless, a large snake and one woman all by himself.

Ed tries to say something about all of this, but the sound of sirens cut him off from getting his first word out. A few police vehicles ride up into the parking lot, all passing by the Eds and right up to where the blue man is. One of the vehicles is a cruiser and the driver steps out to walk over to the blue man to talk to him. The officer looks towards the large side, wearing a blue uniform that is custom to the area. From what the Eds are seeing in the officer, they could see that the man's eyes are not visible and there sits two thick eyebrows as thick as Ed's monobrow over the none visible eyes.

"You have any idea who this blue guy is?" asked Eddy.

"I don't know," Double D replied, shaking his head.

"Maybe he's some sort of superhero," Ed answered. "He looks like one."

"A superhero?" the smart Ed parroted. "For a superhero, he seems... very off."

"Well whoever he is, maybe he knows something about our mission," the greedy Ed asked.

"Eddy, TOM said that we shouldn't be meddling in other worlds' affairs," Double D stated.

"I don't care. Hey! Hey buddy," shouted Eddy. "You want to see something strange and mystical?"

The man looks over to Eddy and then something went off within him, triggering some sort of unknown rage. "_NO_! Get outta here with your hateful words! Lay off the poor writer, will ya?" shouted the blue man. "Sheesh! You're a creep! Go away! We were having a good time until you showed up, flamers." The man temporary turns around to let out a loud, irritated groan. "Go have some coffee, with cream or something! Because I'll tell you something: this is a happy place!"

Eddy is at a crawl during this strange man's shouting, terrified by his booming voice. The Ed got all the way up to his friends and he got back on both feet, shaking from the sudden shout. "Gee, what is his problem?" Eddy asked.

"I have not the slightest clue," said Double D.

Ed is laughing as hard as he can. "That is too funny," he gasps in-between laughs.

"Oh yeah, we'll see who's laughing once I beat you with Double D's Keyblade," Eddy yelled, grabbing hold of said Ed's Joker's Wild and holding the Keyblade above the small Ed's head.

"Now, now gentlemen, there is no need to fight," said the voice of the blue man, now grabbing onto Double D's Keyblade and gently pushes Eddy and Ed away from each other. "There is no need to resort to violence. We could come up with a peaceful situation for all of this."

"Would you care to explain what just happened earlier?" asked Eddy, reminding the man what previously occurred minutes ago.

The blue man looks up to see the large snake boarding an armored truck, along with the woman following from behind. "Oh yeah, that. That's just fulfilling my duty as a superhero in these parts," the man stated.

"You're a real superhero?" asked Ed, now turning into a fanboy.

"That's right. The name's Freakazoid and you are?"

"We're the Eds," answered Double D. "We're out of town, here to check out the sights. Would you mind telling us why there were Heartless back there?"

The blue man raises an eyebrow. "Heartless?" he echoed.

"Those black snakes with those strange emblems on the back of their bodies," Eddy simplifies.

The hero scratches his head, thinking hard about the foes he just fought. "I have no idea what you are talking about," he answered. "I have never seen those kinds of snakes before. I thought they were something Cobra Queen was working on or some of her pets."

"Well, at least we got rid of some of the Heartless in these parts," Double D pointed out, searching over the parking lot for any signs of remaining Heartless snakes.

"Now, if you don't mind, duty's calling out to me and I got a job to do," Freakazoid said, waving goodbye to the Eds.

The blue hero Freakazoid got himself ready to run, but instead of sprinting, he puts both of his hands in the air as if he is trying to fly off the ground. Nothing happens and then he begins to walk off, keeping his hands above his head as he makes rushing air noises as the hero "flies" away from the Eds.

"And he calls himself a hero," mumbles Eddy. "All right, are we done here? I want to get off of this world."

"But Eddy, we just got here!" whines Ed.

"And not to mention that we didn't find this world's keyhole," Double D added. "That being said, we should look around and try to find it."

"But how? In case you didn't know Sock-head, we're in the middle of a freaking city! There are probably millions of those keyholes throughout the stinking city!"

Double D lets out a sigh. "Déjà vu all over again," he mutters under his breath. "Eddy, what we're looking for are keyholes that are more symbolic than just your typical keyhole. Now... where could one be hiding?"

"Over there," Ed offered, pointing towards the white building.

"Ed, I doubt that the keyhole is at the White House," the smart Ed stated. "Though there isn't a chance for the three of us getting onto the grounds without permission, it could be a possible chance to look for it there."

As the Eds are talking, a police cruiser rolls out of the parking lot and parks right where the Eds are at. The window rolls down and the Eds look inside the car to find the man who was speaking to Freakazoid is sitting at the driver wheel.

"Hey kids, the name's Sergeant Cosgrove," the officer said. "It looks like you are need of some help. Can I help you with anything?"

"Oh no sir, we don't," Double D replied.

The officer returns a blank stare, his face not changing any expressions whatsoever. "Hey, do you know where Freakazoid ran off to?" he asked.

Ed points straight ahead, with is the direction to Cosgrove's right and the officer looks in the direction of where Ed is pointing. "Thanks. And if you kids need anything, just feel free to call me," the officer replied.

Cosgrove rolls the window back up to shut the Eds out and rolling the car out onto the roadway, heading in the direction of where Freakazoid is going and follow the hero from behind. The Eds watch the car get farther away from them, leaving them on the sidewalk, as the boys begin searching the city of Washington for any signs of the keyhole. The Eds take their first steps, only for a scream of a passing woman coming from behind to stop them in their tracks, and the Eds look around to see a few Shadow Heartless attacking an innocent woman.

"Allow me to get this," said Eddy.

The small Ed sprints forward, whipping his shield off his back and getting it on the ground so that he can ride it like a round sled. He rides down the street as fast as he could, with sparks flying behind him as he skids down the middle of the street. As the Ed begins to slow down and getting closer to the woman, Eddy jumps up off the shield and using the string to swing the shield towards the Heartless to cut them. The round shield slices each one of the Shadows cleanly through, making them disappear and leaving the woman be.

Eddy comes to a complete stop a few feet away from the woman, and the other Eds follow suit after Eddy is finish beating the Heartless. "You don't need to worry ma'am," said Eddy. "I got rid of those Heartless for you, and there's nothing to fear now."

The woman looks over to Eddy with her face very puzzle. "Heartless? I wasn't screaming of that," she answered. "I was screaming because of that!"

The Eds look in the direction where the woman is pointing, only to catch a glimpse of a larger fight compare to the earlier fight with Freakazoid and the Silvermouths. In this fight, there are no signs of Freakazoid anywhere, as the villain in this fight is the only one winning this fight. There are several different Heartless on the street and sidewalks, attacking innocent bystanders, and a large robot destroying the buildings surrounding the street. And in the middle of this mess is the villain that is causing this destruction, but from what the Eds are seeing... he is not participating in the actual fight.

This villain the Eds are seeing is a very strange one, with him wearing typical scientific clothing of a white lab coat, a blue undershirt with a black tie and a pair of khaki pants. But what makes him unusual is that his head resembles much like a brain, and a very large brain for that matter. The Eds can tell that this villain is very smart, but as for why is he doing what he is doing now remains a question to the boys.

"And what do you mean that you don't have any hearts to sell?" the brain-headed man asked.

"I'm sorry sir, but we haven't got a shipment in a long time now," the food stand clerk replied. "We are expecting something later today, so you might want to check by..."

"But I don't want to wait until the shipment comes in," the brain-headed man stated. "As you can see, these Heartless are very hungry and I need to give them some hearts before they starve."

The man behind the stand then starts to wonder about what the brain man is asking for. "Sir, would you care to explain to me what exactly to you mean by 'heart?'" he asked.

The brain-headed man slaps his brain. "You know; the beating thing in your chest!" He then lets out a sigh. "All right, if you don't want to work with me, I guess I'll use my new toy to help me get what I want."

The brain man reaches down to pick up a Heartless in shape of a large ball with four legs attach and points the legs towards the man. With a sadistic grin on the brain man's face and a terrified look on the clerk's, the brain-headed man approaches the clerk very slowly with the Heartless' mouth opening and closing. Just as he got close, the brain man drops the Heartless as soon as he hears the sound of explosions coming from behind him, turning around to see three children taking down Shadows, Soldiers and the round Heartless.

"Now what is going on here?" he wonders out loud. "Where did these three come from? I was hoping that Freakazoid would be fighting these guys instead of some children."

Double D cuts through several Heartless that got close to the Eds, clearing the numbers down as the Eds focus on the large robot in the middle of the street. Ed notices the brain-headed man rushing up to the robot, only to be climbing up a leg and getting up to the cockpit of the robot. The tall Ed aims his staff for the robot, letting out a Fire spell towards the man, but the spell is reflected by the armor of the robot.

The brain man got up to the cockpit, only to find the sleeping body of the ghost Prankster sleeping at the controls. "Hey, time to get up," said the brain man, beating Prankster on the head.

The Heartless ghost got up from his slumber, rubbing his eyes as he slowly rises up from the cockpit. "What time is it?" he asked.

"It's time for you to get out and allow me to take of these brats," the brain-headed man responded, sliding down into the cockpit so that he can control the robot.

Prankster looks towards the ground to notice the three fighting Eds and the ghost grows a wide smile. "Oh this is great!" Prankster stated. "There's a Keyblade right in front of me, and it's ripe for the taking." He looks down to the man below him and he got down to whisper into the man's ear. "Now listen here. That boy with the ski hat got this weapon that me and the others are looking for. If you can capture him, I'm sure Father will give you a pretty good reward."

"What kind of reward?"

The ghost shrugs. "I don't know, something that you always wanted," he replied. "I'm pretty sure Father can get it for you."

"Ooh, that sounds fantastic! I'll do it, but only if I can find Freaka..."

Just as he is saying the hero's name, Freakazoid comes running down the street, still doing his "flying," as he approaches the battle. The man in the robot rotates the robot around to face the blue-skinned hero and got two arms ready to attack, while Prankster got his staff ready for the fight as well.

"Well speak of the Devil. Hello Freakazoid, I'm glad that you finally shown up," said the brain man.

Freakazoid stops his "flying" to look up at the robot and who is piloting the robot. "Lobe! I knew it was you making these black things appear around town!"

"No you didn't," the man known as the Lobe replied. "You're too buys running around the city, trying to find some sort of crime to fight to figure out it wasn't me in charge of these Heartless."

Freakazoid realizes this statement and he grows a sheepish grin. "Oh right," he answered. He then drops the grin to look more serious. "But since I'm here, I'm going to stop whatever you are doing and put you in jail."

"Hey Freakazoid, you want to get some frozen yogurt with me?" asked Cosgrove, who is right behind Freakazoid.

"Would I?" is the blue hero's answer. The two of them head towards the policeman's car, as the others watch in disbelief by what is happening.

"Hey! Get back here and help us out!" shouted Eddy, his anger now boiling.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday," said Prankster.

"It's a common thing around these parts," the Lobe replied, "though normally he does this when the villain is not present."

The two villains could hear the angry outburst coming out of Eddy, seeing that the boy is angry by the turn of the situation. Prankster begins to come up with a scheme and he aims his staff towards the ground right behind the robot, creating a wall of fire to prevent the robot from escaping, and another wall to prevent the Eds from escaping.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm leaving," Prankster said, tipping his wizard hat. "I got to tell Zip-fly about the findings and get him here to get the Keyblade. In the meantime, make sure you get that boy with the ski cap."

"Will do," the Lobe replied, gripping onto the controls to begin moving the robot.

The robot takes a few steps forward towards the Ed boys, with the Lobe grinning a sadistic smile, as the Eds prepare themselves for a fight. Double D makes a move by using his Keyblade and slicing one of the legs, but the robot uses one of its arms to snatch the smart Ed and hold him up in the air. Ed rushes in to save his friend, using a Fire spell to knock the robot back and dropping Double D on the ground. Eddy takes the shield and throws it at the robot's body, allowing the shield's edge to hit the metal body, but no cut is made from the impact.

Double D tries again at cutting the legs, but as he approaches the legs, he notices several of the round Heartless from earlier under the large robot, and the smart Ed backs off as the Heartless approaches Double D.

"Allow me to introduce you to the Robo-Cores, a type of Heartless that ghost kid gave me earlier," the Lobe said.

The Heartless that are known as Robo-Cores approach the Eds, looking ravenously at their still beating hearts, as the Eds got themselves ready to beat away these Heartless. Double D takes a step and knocks a Robo-Core towards the large robot, causing the small Heartless to disappear upon impact of the harder steel body. The Eds kept shooting the Robo-Cores back at the robot, but the number of the Heartless is steadily growing.

"Eddy, I'm getting tired," Ed complains.

"Same here big guy," the said Ed replied, his arms loosely dangling from swinging his shield.

All three Eds collapse to the ground from exhaustion, too tired to continue the fight, as the Lobe pilots the robot up to the exhausted Eds to look down at his prize. The Robo-Cores begin to surround the Eds, hoping that they could get a chance at the fast-beating hearts in the boys' chests, but the Lobe takes an arm to scoot the Robo-Cores away.

"Back off," the brain-headed villain ordered. "These three are mine, and I need them alive."

The Lobe then begins plotting a scheme, one that could help him with getting his hands on Freakazoid. He picks the Eds up off the street and into the robot's body, storing them inside as the Lobe walks off to go find his enemy. The remaining Robo-Cores follow suit, tailing the large robot like a small army that the Lobe is leading.

OOO

At the frozen yogurt store in town, Freakazoid and Cosgrove are standing right next to the police car. The two of them just finished off their treats, with Freakazoid's belly slightly bulging out from eating more than Cosgrove, as the police officer is still holding onto the cone that he is using.

"Ah yeah, that's some fine frozen yogurt," Freakazoid sighs, follow by a long burp.

Cosgrove lets out an "mmm-hmm" before tossing his cone into the trash can. "You know Freakazoid, those three children may be in danger," Cosgrove noted. "Shouldn't you go see if they are all right?"

Freakazoid quickly remembers the three Eds from earlier and then remembers the fight with the Lobe. "You're right! I better see how well they are," he replied.

The hero got himself ready to run again, but instead of sprinting, he performs his "flying" run, rushing all around as he tries to "fly" away from Cosgrove and go see if the Eds are in need of some aid. The hero is off down the street, running around as fast as he can, all while making the whooshing sound of blowing wind.

Prankster is flying above the buildings, gripping on to his staff as the Heartless is in deep thought. "Now I wonder if that brain dude is going to give up the Keyblader," he ponders. "If we get the Keyblade, then that step is done. But if he doesn't…"

The ghost looks down to notice the "flying" Freakazoid down on the ground and the Heartless starts to remember what information he got on the hero. As soon as he realize what the hero means, Prankster blends in with the air and floats down to ground level, where he allow Freakazoid to pass right through him and to hit the hero right on the head.

From the sudden impact to his head, Freakazoid begins to stumble around. "Oh would you look at that?" he babbled. "I just missed nappy time."

The blue hero slams down hard on the asphalt and Prankster materializes back to normal with a smile on his face. "I guess a trade would be the best thing for us," he said.

OOO

_**We interrupt your reading for this important announcement from the author.**_

Thank you, Joe. Now... how long do I have to do this?

_**Take as long as you like.**_

OK. Now, for the next scene coming up, I'm going to introduce a character that is popular for online memes. And when you do your reviews... for God's sake, don't use his name! It's bad enough that I'm using this person in my story; it doesn't mean that you should use him in your review.

_**This has been a special announcement from the author. We now return you to your story. **_

OOO_**  
**_

Now late in the day with the sun gone from the sky and replacing it with the moon and the stars, a struggling Prankster drags the unconscious Freakazoid up to a warehouse by the docks. The ghost is struggling to get the heavy hero all the way to the warehouse, knowing that he had a hard time finding the building in the first place and the ghost did not know any spells to lift the hero. Once Prankster got to the door, he drops Freakazoid and knocks on the door for the door to swing open.

"What do you want?" asked the Lobe.

"I got what you wanted," Prankster replied, pointing to the unconscious Freakazoid. "Now is there any chance that you can hand me over the boy with the Keyblade?"

"Now why would I do that? If this boy owns a powerful weapon of destruction, then why should I give it to you?"

The Lobe closes the door, but Prankster jams his staff in time to keep the door open. "Listen here! I'm a Heartless and I'm not afraid to cut you open and take that beating heart of yours!"

"Oh please. I got my own Heartless that can put you down a peg or two and really, when it's against numbers, you fall flat," the Lobe stated.

Prankster growls at this statement, removing his staff from the door and begins to back away. "To be fair, I could take your Heartless with my magic," the Heartless said, "but once I come back here with Zip-fly, you're regretting not handing the Keyblade over to me."

"Oh relax you big baby. All right, I'll cut you deal," the Lobe said. "How about I get rid of the boy and give you this Keyblade in exchange for Freakazoid?"

Prankster begins to think over the terms of the deal and gives a firm nod to the brain villain. With a wring of his hands, the Lobe walks up and easily drags the still unconscious Freakazoid into the warehouse. The Heartless performs a teleportation spell as the door closes on him, with the Lobe dragging Freakazoid all the way to the Eds, who are now tied up and struggling to get free. The brain villain puts Freakazoid next to the Eds and wraps the hero up with the boys, keeping Freakazoid from doing his job once he wakes up.

After tying the knot, the Lobe looks over to the shadows and he wrings his hands. "He's finally here," he said to the shadows. "Shall we begin the final step?"

"No, no, let's not get carry away just yet," said a voice of a man. "Freakazoid just got here. Let's just get him comfortable to his new surroundings before we get underway with our plan."

"Well, whatever you two are planning, you're not getting away with it!" Eddy gritted, struggling to break the ropes.

"Oh, indeed I am," a man said, stepping out from the shadows, "and to be fair, I have no intend to be stopped."

"And why is that?" asked Double D.

"Because I want to have all of Freakazoid's power!" stated the man.

The man who is speaking is dress in a brown robe, covering every last bit of his body, san face. For his face, there is only half of his face visible as the rest is cover in shadows. What can be seen is that the man looks to be Hispanic, as his voice proves to be a Hispanic.

"What do you want to do with Freakazoid's power?" Double D asked.

"Maybe he wants to be a superhero?" Ed pitched.

"It's the other way around," said the man. "You see, Freakazoid is the product from my company's flawed pinnacle chip, and when I heard about this flaw, I thought that it was obscured. But then it came to me. If being zapped into the Internet gives a person superhuman strength and speed, then why can't I have it? Of course Freakazoid and a former employer of mine came into the picture stopped my plan the first time around and shut me out from the Internet.

"But that was only the beginning. I tried again, only finally getting the chance to get on the Internet and finally accessing that ultimate power from that flaw. Then I tried getting rid of Freakazoid, but that in turn causing me to lose that power and giving me this!"

The man pulls back his hood to show the Eds what he is hiding. Eddy and Double D are disgusted upon seeing what is on the man's face, as Ed is looking very excited by what he is seeing. After a minute, the man pulls back the hood, concealing his secret and walks up to Freakazoid.

"And now Freakazoid, you are about to go back to being just Dexter Douglas," the man said, grabbing onto the said hero's face.

"You're not going to get away with this Gutierrez," Freakazoid mumbled.

"I already… wait a minute. You're awake?"

"I was all this time," Freakazoid replied, picking his head up. "Weird, huh?"

"So all this time you were just faking being unconscious?" Eddy asked.

"What? I was just helping moving the story along," the blue hero responded.

Eddy is not sure whether to smack his head or to use his hands to strangle Freakazoid, but due to his arms being tied down, he could not do either. As the Eds went back to getting free from their binds, the man known Gutierrez orders the Lobe to wheel in something from the shadows. The Lobe pushes out a cart with an old computer on it, but due to the timeframe that the Eds are in, this computer is fairly new.

"Do you know what this is?" Gutierrez asked.

Freakazoid and the Eds look at the computer for a full minute. "A computer?" questioned Freakazoid.

"A MS-DOS?" questioned Double D.

"Those are the correct answers, but this is more than that," Gutierrez answered. "This is the computer that turned Dexter into Freakazoid, and I'm planning to use it to extract Freakazoid's power."

The heroes are lost upon hearing this. "Wait… you want to have my power?" Freakazoid asked. "But don't you have your own powers?"

"Yes, but I lost all of it, thanks to you! So what I am doing here is returning the favor by making you normal and I get all of your powers."

"I want to absorb Freakazoid's power," said Ed.

"Ed, I'm afraid that if you use the computer, it could lead to disastrous results," Double D stated. "And not to mention the amount of information that is on the Internet today will be a bad thing."

"So how about coming up with a plan to get us out of here," hissed Eddy.

Eddy and Double D try to use whatever they have to cut the ropes, but nothing is proving to work. Gutierrez walks up to the keyboard of the computer and begins typing down a sequence of keys on a piece of paper, starting from the end all the way to the beginning. Once he finishes typing the sequence, the villain turns to face Freakazoid and the Eds, and the Lobe drags Freakazoid towards the computer, where the hero will be sitting in the line of sight of the monitor.

"And now, it's time to absorb your power," Gutierrez said with a finger hovering the delete key. The villain begins to start an evil laugh, but he stops half way to face the Lobe. "Come on, laugh with me."

The Lobe and Gutierrez got on with the laughing, as Double D finally pulls out an arm, reaching high up to the ceiling and bringing forth Joker's Wild. Gutierrez hits the delete key, and the computer springs to life upon the key being pressed. Static electricity forms on the monitor, collecting up to make long string of electricity, as these bolts reach out above Freakazoid's head and up to Double D's Keyblade. The bolts grab onto Joker's Wild and starts tugging on the Keyblade, bringing the weapon towards the computer as the three Eds are being drag by the bolts. Double D could feel his grip slipping and the bolts got the best of him, pulling the Keyblade from the smart Ed's hand and into the computer, all while cutting a portion of Freakazoid's hair.

Freakazoid pulls out a hand and pats his black hair. "Hmm, I needed that," he said, putting his hand back down.

Joker's Wild enters through the monitor, causing the computer to calm down and lose its wild nature. The Lobe and Gutierrez look in shock and anger by what just happened, and Gutierrez begins shaking his fist upon not getting Freakazoid into the computer.

"You got to do something!" Gutierrez shouted at the Lobe. "You're the brains here! Do something!"

"But what can I do? I have no experience dealing with this flaw you keep blabbing about," the Lobe protested. "Besides, I need that Keyblade thing that went into the computer. If I don't get it out of there, I got to deal with one angry…"

Suddenly, the computer spurs back to life and it begins to jump about all excitedly. Electricity is shooting out from the monitor and a portal is forming on the screen. Freakazoid quickly leans forward to prevent what is coming out from the screen from hitting him, as the Keyblade flies out from the monitor and towards the Eds. The Keyblade slices right through the ropes, setting the Eds free from their binds, as the Keyblade continues to shoot across the building before crashing into a wall and falling on the floor.

Upon seeing the Keyblade flying out, the Lobe and Gutierrez look to see Double D heading for his weapon and a few Robo-Core, Shadows, and Knights appear alongside the Lobe to help out. "Well don't just stand there, go get that Keyblade!" the Lobe ordered.

The Heartless listen to their master, as they charge towards the smart Ed to prevent him from getting the Keyblade. Eddy and Ed jump into the Heartless' path and block them from getting any further, all while taking down what is there. The Lobe rushes over to the robot he used from earlier, jumping up into the cockpit and allowing more Heartless to form for the fight.

"I guess we got ourselves a fight here," said Eddy.

"That hood man looks familiar to me," Ed ponders. "You think he knows Captain Kirk?"

"Who?"

Ed shrugs as Double D walks up from behind to signal the start the battle. The Lobe orders for his Heartless to attack, each one hungry to eat each one of the Eds' hearts, and the Eds run towards the Heartless and the Lobe to start fighting. Freakazoid is still in his rope bondage, sitting around as the battle takes place. Gutierrez walks up to Freakazoid and got down to look at the hero in the eyes.

"Any final requests?" asked Gutierrez.

Freakazoid pulls out a hand from his bondage to place the gloved hand on his blue chin. He begins to ponder over the idea, with the sounds of fighting in the background keeping his brain busy with the distraction. After a couple seconds, the blue hero pulls his hand away and slips the hand back into the bondage.

"If there is one thing that I wanted to do... that'll be to play some charades," is his answer.

Gutierrez looks at Freakazoid, pondering over the idea in his head. He gives a shrug, thinking that the hero wants to go a round before his execution, so one Shadow Heartless cuts Freakazoid's ropes to free the hero. Once out, Freakazoid quickly got to work on the game, motioning a hand across his mouth to zip it shut as he flashes off two fingers to begin his round in charades.

"All right, two words," replied Gutierrez, interpreting the blue hero's silent movements.

Freakazoid looks over to where the Eds are fighting, dueling with several Shadows, Knights and Robo-Core Heartless and one angry Lobe. Checking to see that the three are doing well in their fight, the hero slips back to his game and flashes one finger, indicating the first word, follow by six fingers for six letters. Gutierrez gives a nod and utters the words mention, and Freakazoid starts to begin how to interpret the first word he is going for. He comes up with one idea, getting his body straight up and hands above his head, with two gloved hands swaying back and forth like a flame breezing in the wind.

Gutierrez rubs his chin, thinking deeply as Freakazoid continues to wave his hands above his head. "... Candle?" the villain pitched.

Freakazoid drops his pose and shakes his head "yes" in response. As he begins to move again, a Robo-Core shoots right in-between the hero and Gutierrez, crashing into a wall and disappearing off. This small interference is push aside as Freakazoid now flashes two fingers for the second word and adds two more fingers.

"Second word, four letters," translates Gutierrez

Now Freakazoid is lost on doing this word. The hero is thinking hard as to how to interpret this word, yet there are few methods to portray that word. He gathers the information that could be useful to him and then starts acting them out, switching out every few guesses Gutierrez blurts out. With now shouting from Gutierrez in the atmosphere, Eddy takes a few steps back from the fighting to look over where Freakazoid and Gutierrez are and watch the blue hero making a fool out of himself.

"What is he doing?" asked the small Ed.

Double D takes down a Knight and briefly looks over to look over at Freakazoid, only to get his attention back on the fighting with one of the Lobe's robot arms. "It appears that Freakazoid is playing charades," the smart Ed answered.

"Charades? Why would he be playing charades with the villain?" snapped Eddy.

The Lobe pulls back on the robot arm that is attacking Double D to listen in on the conversation. "They're playing charades?" he asked. "May I get in?"

"Me too!" shouted Ed.

"It looks like they are busy with this round," Double D pointed out. "I guess that when they are done with this, we could join in on their fun."

Both the Lobe and Ed let out their disappointment in sighs, hoping that they can join in on the fun. With that out of the way, the four of them continue their fight, with more Heartless appearing and helping out the Lobe to take down the Eds.

Over where Freakazoid and Gutierrez are, Freakazoid is hunch over and moving his hands up and down like he is cranking a lever. Gutierrez begins to fit the image in his mind, now getting a clear thought of the word might be.

"...Jack? Candle... Jack?" he asked.

Freakazoid releases the crank of the invisible jack to celebrate. "That's it, you got it right!" he blurted.

Gutierrez starts to rub his chin. "Candle Jack... Candle Jack... boy, why does that sound so wrong?"

"You don't need to repeat my name. I _can_ hear, you know?"

Gutierrez is shock by the sudden sound of a chilling voice behind him. He turns around to notice a gray hood with a stitch for a mouth behind him, staring into the eyes of Gutierrez's with two white eyes. The stitch turns into a smile and Gutierrez jumps back in fear, shaking to the bone as the being who the villain spoke of gets closer to the shaking villain.

"Hey, don't expect me to be taking just ordinary people," the being stated, turning out to be a ghost. "I'm on a neutral side. I only go for people who say my name. Now hold still."

The ghost takes out a long strand of rope, pulling out enough feet of rope to wrap Gutierrez up. Now with a karmic twist, Gutierrez is the one in bounds of rope, only now he is floating in the air right behind of a ghost with a hood over its head. Gutierrez struggles to get free from his bounds, but the rope is tightly squeezing against his body, as the rope is wrapped around his body to prevent the villain from escaping.

Over towards the Eds, the number of Heartless is dwindling, with only one Robo-Core left standing. Ed reaches out to grab the round body of the robot Heartless and he gives a good toss towards the robot the Lobe is piloting. The Robo-Core impacts the side of the robot with full force, causing the Lobe to be thrown out of the cockpit and down on the ground, and the robot to go flying towards the wall. With the force of the impact, the robot crumbles into pieces, dissembling into all parts that once hold the robot together. The Eds celebrate their victory as the Lobe is pouting loudly.

"That's a real nice move you did there," the Lobe said sarcastically, brushing himself off as he got up. "Do you know how much that thing cost?"

"More than what your low IQ is?" Eddy deadpans.

The Lobe's anger begins to boil. "Still, that isn't enough to make me want to say 'Candle Jack,'" he replied.

The brain-headed villain soon face palms himself for his own stupidity as the said ghost floats over, with Gutierrez tailing from behind. "You're not that bright, are you?" asked the ghost.

With only seconds, the Lobe is now hovering in the air right by Gutierrez, with both of them sulking with the both saying the two words they know should not be said in the same sentence. The ghost turns around to salute off the heroes, heading towards the door with the two villains right behind the ghostly being.

"Well... that went well," said Double D, wondering the situation that just happened.

"How did you know about that?" asked Eddy.

"Well, it was easy," said Freakazoid. "If I tricked Gutierrez and the Lobe into saying 'Candle Jack,' this fight will be all over."

The Eds look in horror as the said ghost quickly reappears and ties up the blue hero as fast as he appeared. "I guess this is my time to go," said Freakazoid. "I'll see you later then."

The ghost got Freakazoid up in the air, hovering at the same level as the Lobe and Gutierrez, and the ghost makes his way back towards the door he was trying to leave out of. Once outside, the Eds are left alone in the spacious warehouse, wondering what to do next, when all of a sudden an explosion is let out. The Eds look up from their cover, seeing through the cloud of dust to be the shape of their ship, and one coughing man that sounds familiar.

"All right, this is the last time that I'm flying a plane," grunts the policeman Cosgrove, letting out another wheeze.

"And the cavalry finally shows up," stated Eddy sarcastically, with all three Eds walking up to their Gummi ship. "What took you so long?"

"What can I say kid? I got lost."

"Well, at least we have a ride off of this world," the smart Ed noted.

"Hey, where's Freakazoid?" asked Cosgrove.

"Oh he was kidnapped by some ghost named Candle..." Ed slaps a hand over Eddy's mouth, cutting him off before he could finish his sentence.

"You should not speak of the Devil's name," Ed whispers into Eddy's ear, "lest you want to be tied up and be drag down into the darkest pits of Hades."

Cosgrove processes the sentences Eddy was trying to say before speaking again. "Don't worry about Freakazoid, kids," said the policeman. "Knowing him, he'll figure something out to get him out of that situation."

Double D begins to feel the same sensation from what he felt earlier in Townsville. He looks towards the computer that Gutierrez brought in. On the monitor, light begins to take a shape of a keyhole. The Ed realizes that this is the keyhole TOM is taking about, and he takes out his Keyblade. Aiming directly at the keyhole, he makes sure to align the Keyblade to seal the lock to this world. A beam of light shoots out, making the sound of clicking to lock the keyhole. Then the keyhole disappears from the monitor, regaining the same image from earlier, which is signaling Double D that it is time to leave this world.

The smart Ed then catches a glimpse of something shiny towards the ground and he rotates his head back to notice the object of interest. On the ground is a charm of some sort, with a silver ring holding a black stone in the middle and is being hold on to by a silver chain. In the stone is a symbol of what looks like a gray hood and a flame underneath, eerily similar to the ghost from earlier. Eddy lets out a whistle and the smart Ed looks back to see the others are boarding their ship. The Keyblade wielder grabs the chain and begins running towards his friends, getting up to the entrance of their ship so that they leave the world.

"What'cha got back there," asked Eddy.

"It's nothing," said Double D, pocketing the charm. "We need to get out of here before what's his name comes back."

"Who, Candle Jack?" said Ed. He quickly realizes what he just said and he turns around to notice the said person is right behind the Eds.

The ghost gives a stitched smile. "I'm going to need more rope."

OOO

"_Wake up your folks and tell them you're hungry. Go!_" – Freakazoid

* * *

All right, allow me to clarify that I said back in Chapter Two. I said "shows that appeared or are appearing on Cartoon Network," not "Cartoon Network original shows." If I did use the originals… then I would have very limited resources to choose from. And to say, _Freakazoid!_ did air on Cartoon Network. Though those episodes were reruns, the show was on Cartoon Network. So if you complain to me about that, I suggest that you look the information for yourselves. Like I said: I am doing my research here.

Well, I like to thank the people that previewed this chapter and giving back your feedback. I'm pleased that you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. I knew that I nailed this chapter, as of watching the entire series in a day makes it all worth it. And now we need to figure out on how to deal with the "hopes to make a movie deal" line in the theme song...

And note: Robo-Cores and Silvermouths are original Heartless. It's a fan-fiction, so I can come up with any form of Heartless, depending on where the setting is or who the master is. You'll see plenty more original Heartless as this story progresses. And to add, if you want to help me, I am looking for songs to add for a soundtrack. Oh... if you can remix music or know of songs that seem to fit perfectly with where I am going, PM me about it. I will like to hear some remixes of theme songs that can be play like in _Kingdom Hearts_.

Well, it also won't be _Freakazoid!_ if I didn't pulverize the fourth wall and add whatever-his-name-is.

I know that somehow I am going to get through this chapter without saying that person's name. If I did, I wouldn't be finishing this chapter. And if you apply logic, I can't say the name, but the characters can and he will show up to do his job. And I'm glad that I have not said Candle Jack once while talking about him (if you know what I mean).

Once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is


	6. Act I, Ch 06: Nowhere

Thank God for the clones. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here writing the next chapter. And don't worry… this is the real me writing this chapter. Though I am missing out on some pies, which I can go for right about now. Oh … crap, if I say his name now, then I wouldn't be able to get on with the story. And then I don't have any plans to say his name again until later on. Crap.

So anyway, as I was trying to say last chapter, this one is going to feature yet another Cartoon Cartoon classic, this time taking place in the oh so perfect realm of my favorite stuff in the world… _NIGHTMARE FUEL_! Wanna take a guess where the Eds are heading? Too bad, just read on!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Six – Out in the Middle of Nowhere

OOO

With the radar picking up no detection within the ship's range, the Eds are sailing through space with no worries whatsoever. As their Gummi ship travels on to the next world, the boys are feeling glad that they got their first world safe from Heartless taking over and destroying the heart that is Washington, D.C. With only Eddy and Double D sitting at the helm, the two are looking out into the vastness of space to see the countless stars before them and nothing else beyond that. The small Ed has his feet kick up on the dashboard and Double D got his charm out that he obtained from Washington, flipping it over to see the name of the charm written on it.

"So what is up with that?" asked Eddy, looking over to see the charm in Double D's hand.

"I'm not sure," the smart Ed replied. "I think this may have a connection with that ghost back in Washington, D.C."

"And speaking of which, how's Ed doing?"

"He seems to be fine after getting him from that ghost," Double D said, recalling the events that led to Ed being captured by a hooded ghost and taken away to a hidden location. "I'll give him a few minutes and he'll be back to normal by the time we hit our next destination."

"So is there anything else in this universe?" Eddy asked. "If I remember, there were those other planets that we visited."

"But those planets were several light-years away, and there's no way that this ship's capable of traveling at light-speed."

"_You will be amazed by what technology has advanced in these days_," spoke a familiar voice. On the monitor in-between the Eds', there is the familiar sight of the boy genius Dexter.

"Oh. Hello there Dexter," said Double D. "How are things going back in Traverse Town?"

"_Everything is going smoothly on this side_," Dexter replied. "_We are currently experiencing some minor nuisances from the Heartless and a computer program we have been slaving away at, but all in all, not much is really exciting here_."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, big deal. Why exactly are you calling us?" asked Eddy.

"_If you must know, I do have access to the Midnight Hummer from here so if there are any problems to the ship, I will know about it. Plus, I can add any special programs that may aid you in your travel_."

"So you are calling that you are adding something?" Double D asked.

"_Of course! What I am adding is a little program that will help you locate your friends_," the boy genius responded. "_You can use your radar to locate them with no problem now_."

"But that isn't going to help if we don't have a map," Eddy pointed out.

"_Look buster, these things take time and I would have added a map if I knew you three were coming_!" snapped Dexter.

Eddy growls at this statement as the two Eds can hear some beeping coming from their radar. They look towards the radar to find that the device is picking up a blue blip, only blinking for a second before beeping and blinking five seconds later. The two look at each other, figuring out that this must be the new feature and they can tell that they are getting someone on the radar. With a course set for them, Double D aligns the ship so that they are on a straight path towards the next world.

Eddy looks over to Double D, where he notices that the smart Ed is twitching slightly. "Is there something wrong?" he asked.

"Wrong? Why, what makes you say that?" replied Double D.

"You're twitching. It's making me nervous."

"What... this?" He takes a hand off of the controls to study his hand. "It may be some sort of reaction, possibly from being out here for so long."

"Or it has to do with the Keyblade of yours," the greedy Ed said. "What happened after it flew out of the computer?"

Double D takes his free hand and places it on his forehead. "I'm... not quite sure on that. As soon as I touch the grip, I begin to see a raining binary code in my eyes, seeing all sorts of data flash before my eyes, and I notice that I learn how much health the Heartless we fought had left, including that robot's as well. Plus... I saw this light glowing from the Keyblade... as if it was some sort of..."

The ship begins to jerk, rocking slightly as sirens are trip from the impact. Double D checks the monitor to see what the Eds hit, only to see that the ship has taken some damage from a shot, but on the radar, there are no signs of a Gummi Heartless anywhere. But then a red blip appears from the bottom, telling the Eds are getting an enemy ship from behind them and the ship rocks again, this time coming from a stream of shots. Eddy got up from the co-pilot seat and rushes towards the turret that controls the guns on the wings.

As the small Ed got into the compartment, he rotates the barrels to aim at the enemy ship and he got the monitor on to see who is attacking the Eds. Once the screen is warm enough and a clear image is displaying, Eddy can see that there is barely nothing out there, only getting a trace of another Gummi ship floating in space. There are hints of the ship being out there, but the color scheme of black does not help the Eds one bit with dealing with an unknown force. Eddy tries to shoot down the near invisible target, but the ship out-maneuvers the stream of fire bullets and return fires its own.

As the Eds are taken damage, Double D is struggling to keep their ship align to their target, all while trying to dodge the incoming fire. He reaches for the intercom and he got the system going with the microphone level crank up high. "Ed, we need you on the large turret immediately!" he ordered. "We got company and they are not happy with us being out here!"

"All ready to go!" the tall Ed shouted, hopping out of the guest room and up into the corridor for the gravity cannon. Once in, Ed got the turret aiming at the target, with one shot ready to go, but the enemy Gummi ship quickly recognizes the incoming attack and moves his ship out of the way. Ed fires the cannon, shooting out the heavy round above its intended target, and the round explodes, sending a damaging shockwave across space and inflicting damage to the enemy ship.

"Way to go Ed!" shouted Eddy.

"Eddy, we are not quite done here," stated Double D.

Eddy looks out to notice that the Gummi ship is still flying, even after taking the shockwave of an explosion. The pilot of the ship straightens out his ship and returns fire, sending two streams of fire attacks at the Eds and Double D struggles to get away from the bullet stream, due to that the wings have taken some damage. Eddy sends a counterattack at the enemy Gummi ship, using their own turrets to take the ship down, but nothing. Ed once again got the gravity cannon ready, getting a round into the barrel and aiming it at the enemy ship, and once he fires the shot, the enemy ship fires a single blizzard round, colliding with the gravity round and set off the explosion.

With one fatal blow from the enemy ship, the _Midnight Hummer_ rocks violently and starts to veer off course, heading straight for a world nearby. The Eds that are controlling the turrets bounce out from their stations and skid around the main cockpit, as Double D puts a death grip onto the controls to keep himself from flying. Eddy manages to gain some footing as the ship stops its heavy rocking and he looks to see that a world is coming into view.

"We're heading there?" the small Ed asked.

"Apparently," replied Double D. "That's where one of our friends are, and we're going in for a crash landing!"

The world that the Eds are heading for is a large orange ball of dust, with only a farmhouse and a windmill on top and what appears to be some sort of cat head shaping the bottom of the world. The Eds can feel their ship rocking as they start to enter the atmosphere, and the Gummi ship from behind fires one more shot from its blizzard turret, sending the shotgun-like blast into one of the thrusters and shutting it off for good.

"If only I had that one scam to go right, we wouldn't be in this situation!" shouted Eddy.

"If only I had got the chance to confess my sins to my parents!" stated Double D.

"If only I had a bar of chocolate!" yelled Ed.

As the _Midnight Hummer_ descends on the world below, the Gummi ship that fired at them slows to a stop and watches the ship get closer and closer to the ground. "So much for them," he said, getting his ship ready for travel.

OOO

The desert world is nothing more than a stretch of barren prairie fields, dried from lack of moisture in years, maybe decades. There is sand and dirt for miles, with only a small town fill with the necessities and some people living here, and a stretch of road that stretches the same distance as the wasteland. Out far from town sits a farm, consisting of a barn, a chicken coop, a windmill, a hand-crank water pump, a pick-up truck and a farmhouse. There is nothing really special going with this farm, as there is no real livestock, except chickens, roaming the fields and nothing growing for crops.

This world is nothing, if not... boring.

At the farmhouse, the screen door opens up and a dog is being held up back the back of his neck and he is sent out across the yard, flying for a few seconds before crashing back down to earth for a rough landing. The poor dog tumbles around for several more feet, all before coming to a skidding stop using his face, and the dog plops to ground flat. The dog only lets out a strange laugh before moaning in pain from the injury it took from the landing. As it is lying there, he recalls the events that led to him being kicked out, only for this dog to done nothing wrong to his master.

The dog himself is not like a normal dog, as his fur is an unusual color, being pink, and he has three black spots on his back with one having a white spot inside the large spot. The dog is a small dog, not much bigger than a typical dog of any the smaller breeds, with him being one of the few to stand on his hind legs and walk with two legs. He also has a small stubby tail slightly wagging, and he has thin brown ears and a large brown nose on his snout.

_How come I always get the boot from that farmer?_ the dog thought to himself. _If he doesn't know any better, he definitely needs a major attitude change._

The dog begins to pick up the scent of smoke in the area and he notices a pile of junk rising up in the distance. The dog is curious upon seeing this, as he is familiar with the land around him and this is recently new, so using his standing legs, he walks all the way to the junk pile. Upon arriving, he lets out a loud gasp, finding the pile to be a crash site of a space ship and three boys lying on the ground unconscious. He walks up to the one in the gray jacket to poke the boy to see if he is still alive, only to get no movement from them.

_Ooh, this is serious!_ the dog thought, letting out a howl in real-life. _I better get them to Muriel and fast! Maybe the doctor if I'm desperate... and I'm not._

The dog begins to think on how to carry the boys, only to take a look at the wreckage of the ship and starts to see something that he can use. The dog walks up and tugs on a piece of the Gummi wing that he can use as a stretcher for the three boys, and he got all three on with two being fairly easy and the last one hard to tug due to his weight. Once on, the dog grab some cables and he strings them together, making a pulling rope that he can use to drag the wing across the barren ground and up to the farmhouse.

Upon arriving at the farmhouse, the dog drops the rope and he walks up the porch to get to the front door. He got inside and notices his master sitting in their chairs, with an elderly woman rocking back and forth in a wooden chair and an elderly farmer lounging in a comfortable red chair with a newspaper in front of him. There is a television playing, showing a random movie on the screen, and the dog walks up to the woman to tug on her apron, hoping to get her attention.

As the dog is tugging, he is making whining noises, which causes the farmer to fold up his paper and look over at the pink dog. "What are you doing back in the house?" he asked sharply. "I thought I kicked you out."

"Now Eustace, don't you think Courage had enough for today?" the woman asked nicely. "He's been out in the sun for too long and he needs to cool off."

"He doesn't need to cool off," the man said, getting out of his chair so that he can grab the dog by the neck. "He's just a lousy, sweaty dog that needs to be in the heat, so out he goes!"

"Eustace Bagge!" shouted the woman, getting out of her chair so that she can take a rolling pin and smack the farmer on the head.

Upon impact, the man drops the dog from his grip and he is rubbing his head. "OW! What did I do?" he asked in a painful tone.

"You should know better treating Courage like that," she said, waving the rolling pin in front of the farmer. The woman can feel her apron being tug and she knows the dog pulling at it. "Now what is it, Courage?"

"Help, help!" the dog babbled, pointing out towards the front lawn.

The woman and the farmer look outside through the screen and they can notice nothing within the seven miles they can see, all except for the three boys lying on the wing unconscious and badly hurt. The two notices the boys and they walk outside to take a closer at the boys, noticing that they are breathing and they have cuts and bruises all over their bodies.

"Oh my, they look seriously hurt," the woman said. "Eustace, we better get some help here."

"Nah-uh, I ain't calling the doctor," the farmer protested.

"Eustace, for goodness' sake, these boys are hurt! At least help me get these boys in the house."

"Nope, ain't gonna do that neither," the man grunts. "All I want is breakfast."

The woman lets out an irritated sigh and she turns to the dog. "Courage, can you help me with this?"

The dog returns a nod and he went to work helping the woman carrying the boys into their home and onto some furniture. The woman takes the fallen Ed and places him in the red comfortable, and the farmer protests about this before backing away from the woman's rolling pin, and the dog takes Double D and places him in the rocking chair, leaving Eddy on the rug in the middle of the room. With all three Eds lying where there are now, the woman and the dog look in discern as the farmer is grumbling under his breath about Ed is sitting in his chair.

"Oh my, if there was something that we can do to help," the woman said.

"I gotta an idea," the man said, reaching behind his chair to grab something. He pulls out a large goofy mask and places on his head. "Boo-ga, boo-ga, boo-ga!"

The dog lets out a scream, terrified from seeing the mask and hearing the farmer's cry, and the dog's fur is standing on ends as he is screaming. The dog calms down after the farmer removes the mask, only to see that the boys are still out, and the man mumbles some more. "Maybe me mallet will do the trick," he said, tossing the mask aside and going upstairs to go get the said item.

Once the farmer is gone, Ed's hat Normadomus begins to stir and the dog notices the hat moving, letting out another scream. The hat looks over to the dog and he unzips his mouth to speak. "Don't worry doggy, I'm not going to hurt you," the hat said.

The dog scurries right behind the woman and starts to tremble, making the woman's clothing vibrate. The elderly woman looks at Ed's hat with curiosity as she approaches the unconscious Ed to look at the hat closer. "Excuse me, but did you just speak?" she asked.

"It's a long story ma'am, but rest assure, I'll get these boys back into shape," Normadomus said.

The hat jumps from Ed's head and lands onto an end table, turning so that he can have all three Eds in his sight. He opens his mouth, causing the inside of his mouth to grow green, and he jumps up to perform a somersault, releasing the green glow from his mouth. With a clear shout of "Curaga!" the green light radiates the room and the Eds' wounds begin to heal and disappear. The woman and the dog watch in awe as the wounds disappear and the Eds begin to wake up from their slumber.

Normadomus jumps onto the red chair and he got back onto Ed's comfy head as the boys got back to reality and realize where they are at. Eddy leans up from being on the ground and he cracks his spine back into place.

"For all the reasons to be on the floor, this isn't one of them," the greedy Ed groans.

"Well, you could be like Ed and be sitting in a more comfortable chair," said Double D, pointing over to the said Ed.

Ed is getting himself deeper into the chair, reclining deeper than he ever gone before. "This doesn't feel like home," he said.

"Well, at least I am glad that you three are all right," the woman said. "If you were beat up severely, who knows what could happen."

The Eds look at each other and they recall getting shot down from that mysterious Gummi ship and crashing onto this planet. They are lucky to survive all of that, even if Normadomus did use a Reflect spell to cushion their fall and use Curaga spell later to heal them. The woman walks out of the living room for a moment and returns with three cups of hot tea, and she presents each one of them a cup for them to drink out of.

"Drink up as much as you like," she said. "I know that you three must have a traumatizing event and you might like to take some time off. My name is Muriel, by the way."

"Please to meet you," said Double D, "and thank you for the tea."

"It's nothing really," Muriel replied. "Now, if you excuse me, I better go get Courage's lunch ready."

The woman known as Muriel heads out of the room to get to the kitchen, leaving the dog alone with the Eds. The dog looks at the Eds nervously, mainly Eddy due to his irritated face, but he relaxes when he sees Double D and Ed. The tall Ed motions for the dog to get up on the boy's lap and the dog kindly accepts Ed's offer and jump up on the Ed's lap.

"Aw, he's so soft," said Ed, petting the dog's fur. "You're name's Courage?"

The dog nods in response. "That's kinda lame for a dog that looks so timid," said Eddy.

The Eds can hear the sounds of footsteps from behind, and they look to see a man walking down with a large mallet in his hand. The man is mumbling something under his breath and he turns to face Ed. Once the man realizes that the Ed is fully awake and seeing the dog Courage sitting in his lap, the man raises his mallet.

"What are you doing in me chair?" the man asked, getting ready to use his weapon.

"Your chair?" asked Ed.

"Yes, my chair, and what's that dog doing in me chair as well?"

"Excuse me mister, but aren't you being a bit rude?" Double D asked, getting out of the rocking chair.

"Well no one asked you to even be here," the man replied. "I want you out of the house or else I'll use me mallet on all of you."

Courage lets out a yelp and the Eds got themselves ready for what the man is going to dish out, but Muriel steps into the living room with an angry look on her face. "Eustace Bagge! Why are you going about and threatening these boys?" she asked forcefully. "Courage brought them in and they are still not feeling well."

"Actually, I feel much better now," said Eddy.

"We don't need them here," said the man Eustace. "They're solicitors, and we don't need solicitors."

"Solicitors?" echoed all three Eds.

"And if you say you are feeling better, then you better high-tail it out of here," said Eustace, pointing to the door. "And take that dumb dog with you while you're at it."

Muriel walks up to the man and she whacks Eustace straight across the head with her rolling pin, allowing the man to let out an "Ow! What did I do?" Muriel gives a hateful glare into Eustace's eyes, with both staring at each other for a bit before Eustace gives up. "It appears I am not wanted here," he said. "I'm going out. And when I get back, there better be some food on the table."

Eustace got to the front door and quickly leaves while slamming the door. The Eds watch through the screen and through the window as the man walks up to the truck and got inside, only to start it up and drive away. The boys got back to where they were and Muriel walks up to them with a much happier look.

"I am really sorry about that," she said. "Eustace isn't always like that. I guess it has to do with the strange occurrences lately."

"Strange occurrences?" parroted Double D.

"Oh yes, we have been seeing this strange creatures outside and people going missing because of these creatures."

"What kind of creatures?" asked Normadomus.

"Well... they look large black balls, and some of them look like mummies, and others appear to be ghosts, and I did see one flying about like a bird I have never seen before, and there were these short black things that look cute upon closer..."

"Heartless!" shouted all three Eds and Normadomus.

Muriel shoots the boys a confused look. "Excuse me?"

"Those things you were describing were Heartless," explained Double D.

"Oh dear, that sounds terrible," the woman said. "Who knew such things could go about and not have a heart."

"Uh, they do have hearts," said Normadomus. "I believe you are talking about the Nobodies. They are the ones without a heart."

"But why are they called Heartless when they have hearts?" questions Muriel.

The boys look at each other and they give each other and the woman a shrug, with even Ed's hat doing his best at doing a shrug. They simply do not know the answer, as they are not truly familiar with why the Heartless are call that when they possess hearts. Muriel understands the situation and she offers the boys some food, and the Eds give her three yeses, so she walks out of the living room to prepare the Eds their meal.

As Muriel leaves the room, the Eds look towards Courage, who is shaking like a leaf and causing Ed to shake as well. The tall Ed picks up the startled Courage and got the dog to face him. "What's the matter doggy?" asked Ed.

Courage starts to jabber something, but the Eds can not understand what the dog is saying. The dog points to the ground and Ed gently lowers Courage on the ground so that the dog can walk up in front of everyone and present to them what he is trying to say. Courage is still babbling, only that he is shape-shifting into different forms, each one resembling much like the Heartless Muriel described. After Courage is done, he reverts back to his normal dog form and he continues to babble on.

"Uh, what is he saying?" asked Eddy.

"Wait, I think he's speaking words!" stated Ed.

Courage stops his babbling and he smacks himself on the forehead. _You know, this would be a lot easier if I were able to talk_, he thought to himself, _but apparently I am stuck like this. I will like to get my hands on the people who did this to me_.

"Still, it probably wouldn't matter what Courage is saying," said Double D. "We are going to meet these Heartless in the first place and maybe while we're out, we'll find our friend and hopefully get off of this world."

"And speaking of which, how are we going to get off of this world?" asked Eddy, offering a good question. He does make his point that the Eds do not have a ship that can send them off, and the surrounding area proves to be barren, lest the Eds go explore the world to find any help that can get to fix the Gummi ship.

"We can rebuild it ourselves," offered Ed.

"Ed, this isn't like building a scam," replied Double D. "We haven't dealt with Gummi material before, so this isn't like using normal building blocks."

"But aren't Gummi blocks like building blocks?" the tall Ed asked.

The boys decide to leave this unanswered until they check out the wreckage for themselves. They got up from where they were and got their way outside, where they can see the barren desert that makes up this world. Upon seeing, they can see the seven miles that they can from the ground and nothing else beyond the horizon. All that they can see is a chicken coop, a water pump, some smoke coming up in the distance, the windmill...

The Eds look out into the distance to notice a thin column of smoke rising up into the atmosphere and they can hear the faint sound of a tractor going. With this in mind, the Eds got into running mode and they hurry themselves to check out who is driving this tractor and see if this person can help them get off of this world. They are running for quite some time and it appears that the tractor is getting closer to them, and as they are running, they can see that the wreckage of their ship is in view.

The boys stop in their tracks and they begin to shout and wave at the approaching tractor, hoping for whoever is driving the vehicle to stop. Once the driver can see the Eds, he got the red tractor to a stop and the Eds walk up to see who this person is, only to find a shocker of who it is. Sitting at the wheel is a tall boy, his skin tanned from working out in the fields, wearing a yellow shirt with a red stripe going around his waist, baggy blue jeans and long red shoes, and his hair is blue.

All three of the Eds' mouths are hanging open upon realizing who this driver is. "_ROLF_?" the boys shouted as once.

The said boy looks towards the surprised Eds and he gives them a warm smile. "Top of the marrow, strangely dressed Ed boys," he said as he is getting down from the tractor. "Fancy meeting you all out here in the middle of Nowhere."

"But... how did you end up here?" asked Double D.

"Is it not simple to you, overly complicated Double D Ed by," replied Rolf. "Rolf got sucked into that swirling black vortex much like you, leaving Rolf a deep slumber before waking up fresh and new out here."

"Rolf, you do realize that there's absolutely nothing out here," Eddy pointed out.

The tall boy takes notice of his surroundings, only noticing the farmhouse, the wreckage, the Eds, a road and the barren wasteland from outwards on. "Yes, but there is nothing like this field can do without some food."

"Rolf, isn't it obvious that this land is unsuitable for anything to go out here?" questioned Double D. "Besides, are there any signs of any rain clouds in the area whatsoever?"

"Rolf will make due with what little water Rolf has to work with," Rolf said with confidence. "Rolf will make sure that this land will be the best you Ed boys will ever see!"

"Is it me, or is this boy missing a few marbles?" whispered Normadomus.

"I'm missing a few myself," replied Ed.

"So Rolf, how's about you come back with us once we leave this world?" asked Eddy.

"Now why would Rolf leave here?"

"Because there is nothing out here, and if you stay out here exposed like you are, the Heartless are going to get you," explained Double D.

"Nonsense! Rolf knows how to handle Rolf well better than one Ed boy can," the tall boy replied.

"All right Rolf, it's your funeral," said Eddy, walking away.

"Eddy!"

"What Double D, it's not like we're going to leave him here. Besides, we can't get off this world in the first place because our ship's wrecked!"

Double D glances over to where the wreckage of their ship is. "That's true," he responded. "That being said, we should go find someone with some knowledge about how to..."

The Ed stops his sentence as they can hear the sound of static coming from the wreck. Eddy and Double D walk to the junk and notice that the monitor is still working, and they can see the face of Dexter on the screen, but the image is distorted. Eddy gives the monitor a good pound and the image is clear for them to see Dexter and clear for the boy genius to speak.

"_What is going on over there?_" asked Dexter. "_I have been trying to contact you for the past few minutes and nothing!_"

"We're sorry Dexter, but we got into a bit of a snag," Double D responded.

"_What kind of snag?_"

"Someone shot us down and we've crashed onto some world," answered Eddy. "We don't have a way to get off of this world now, and none of us know how to rebuild the ship!"

"_Well this is a pickle indeed_," said Dexter, adjusting his glasses. "_I should send you a replacement, but I am not sure that it will get to you in time. I can only suggest finding someone that knows how to use Gummi blocks and get him or her to rebuild your ship_."

With that, the screen went blank and Double D places the monitor down on the ground. The two Eds look around their surroundings, hoping that they can see someone, but all they can see is Ed and Rolf. Then they notice a man towards the road, and they got the thought that this man may be the answer they are looking for. The two begin to run towards the man, allowing Ed to be with Rolf a little longer.

"Hey! Hey mister!" shouted both Double D and Eddy. "We need help here!"

The small Ed stops in his track and Double D continues on, only to collide with the man. The man himself is an Asian, wearing a white shirt, blue shorts and sandals with pink straps and flowers on them, and Eddy snickers at this. The man is wearing a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, concealing his eyes and he has jet black spiky hair.

"Watch where you're going, ya fool!" the Asian man shouted, shaking a fist at the smart Ed.

"Uh, I'm sorry about that sir," Double D said, backing away from the man. "I... we were just looking for someone that can help us with our ship, and..."

The Asian man places a hand on his chin, looking at the Eds before looking at the wreckage through his sunglasses. He walks up to the wreck, with the two Eds following behind, and he picks up a Gummi block, giving it a good squeeze and then moving on to the next. It was not long before the man is through checking the wreckage and going back up to the Eds with his feedback.

"It looks like I can fix this," he said. "Nothing too big that I can't fix. But it'll have to cost you."

"How much?" asked Eddy.

The man reaches into one of his pockets and pulls out a calculator. He looks back at the wreckage and begins tallying up the total into what the Eds are going to need to pay for the repair. After a few keystrokes and a tear of paper, the man scans over the paper and hands it over to the Eds to read.

"What! We can't afford this!" shouted Eddy. "We don't even have that kind of Munny!"

"No Munny, no repair," the Asian man stated.

"Eddy, I believe that we may have earned some Munny while he defeated some of the Heartless," said Double D. "We can use all that we earned and use that."

"But how much do we have?"

"1,756," said Normadomus, remembering the total they have.

"That'll do," said the Asian man, stretching out his hand.

The Eds reach into their pockets and grab all of the Munny they have on their personnel and hand it all over to the Asian man. Once the man got the money, he made sure that he got the total Normadomus pitched and pockets the change. Out of the same pocket, he draws a wrench and walks over to the wreckage to begin his

"It should be a while," the man said. "Might be hours or days, give or take."

"It's all right," replied Double D. "We don't have much to do anyway."

With the nods from the Eds, the Asian man twirls his wrench and got to work on the ship, grabbing block after block to rebuild the _Midnight Hummer_.

"And now we need a distraction," said Eddy. "Where exactly can we find some Heartless to fight?"

OOO

Out far in the desert world, the truck that Eustace is driving is still traveling on the road, with the farmer at the wheel gritting his teeth and mumbling under his breath. In his mind runs many hateful things, many which contains about Courage and a few about his past life, but he is too busy focusing on the road to worry about what is in his mind. All that matters to him is that he gets something in his stomach and try to get rich. Being a farmer in a location unsuited for growing is not a profitable way to learn your living.

A sign passes by the truck advertising a local business, and Eustace catches a glimpse of the name of the business, remembering something about that name. In the distance, he can see it and in a few short minutes, he reaches the establishment. The farmer pulls into the empty parking lot and got his truck to a stop and he got out so that he can check this business out. From what he is seeing, it is a pet store of some sort, with a sign hanging right above the double glass door reading "Katz Pets."

With a grumble, the man enters the store, allowing the bell to ring and to notice the contents inside. Inside some of the cages that are out, there are several black creatures, mainly resembling Shadows, with a few that look like mummies and ghosts, and one large dark brown eagle-like Heartless with large legs, torn wings and a spiked club tail. Eustace walks up to the large eagle Heartless to study it, but the Heartless snaps its mouth near Eustace, with only room to spare to prevent his heart from being torn from him.

"Please, do not feed the Heartless," said a calm British voice. "Save it until _after_ you buy something."

Eustace looks towards the counter with some fear on his face, only to notice that there is no one there. He walks up and rings the bell on the counter a few times to allow whoever is there to hear it. Once the ringing is stop, a red cat rises up from below the counter, with a stern look in his cat eyes and a tail rhythmically swaying back and forth.

"Welcome to Katz Pets," the cat said calmly. "I'm Katz. What can I get you?"

Eustace looks over to the eagle looking Heartless before focusing on the cat. "How much for that thing?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, but that Dustflier is not for sale," the cat so specifically named Katz replied. He begins to take notice of Eustace. "Say, do I know you from somewhere? You look very familiar."

"Yeah, same goes to you. Oh. I believe it was the time when we tried to get rid of that stupid dog by trapping Muriel and getting that dumb dog into a game of dodgeball!"

"Ah yes, I remember now. You're that dumb farmer," Katz said. "Well, since you're here, why don't I show you a special Heartless?"

Eustace mumbles something, which Katz takes for as a yes, and the cat got away from the counter to lead Eustace to the back room. The farmer and the cat got inside, walking down a dimly lit hallway line with cages reaching to the ceiling. In all of the cages, ravenous Heartless are reaching out from beyond the bars at Eustace and Katz to try to get their beating hearts, and the two pay no mind to these starving creatures of the darkness. Instead, they are focusing on the very back of the hallway, which opens up to be a very spacious room but completely in shadows. All there is of this room a single light hanging above in the very middle of the room, and a large puddle of water slowly expanding from the shadow.

Katz walks towards the end of the light, right at the edge of the puddle, and Eustace stands on the opposite end of the light. He can hear the sound of the hungry Heartless in the back, but he can also hear the sound of faint breathing coming from the shadows behind Katz. There is the sound of chains rattling and metal banging, and Eustace starts to shake in fear of whatever this cat is hiding in the shadow.

"Now what I have here is a Heartless that will definitely eliminate that dog from our lives," said Katz, not worrying about Eustace's current state. "I got it from my employer, stating that this will take care of any sort of annoyance that stands in my way."

"So how much are we talking here?" asked Eustace.

"Free, of course."

"Works for me!"

"Would you like a demonstration of what Prison Keeper can do?"

Eustace nods his head yes before realizing what the Heartless is called. As soon he dawns on him, a snap of metal echoes off of the walls and a long arm reaches out from the shadows. Bony fingers latch onto a terrify Eustace and drags the man into the shadows, with his only defense is to claw at the hard concrete floor below. Katz watches in amusement as a towering Heartless with a soul-looking dark gray head – with a stitch going in-between two spiral eyes, and a bandage tip on its head – a cage dangling below it, a metal chin holding up the cage, and two long arms with bony fingers emerges from the shadows and swallow Eustace whole.

Once inside, Eustace drops down into the cage and the large Heartless starts to grow very angry. With this sudden anger, the room begins to rock violently and the cage bang against each other to add more noise to the room. Then, with several small explosions, the locks on the cages shatter and the doors swing open to allow the Heartless to roam free from their cages.

Katz wrings his paws in amusement. "And that's the power of Prison Keeper," he purrs.

OOO

"This stinks, I'm bored."

"Come now Eddy, there is something that we can do that will pass the time by us. There are plenty of things to do on this world, and we just need to discover what those things are."

"I forgot to wear my underwear."

The Eds are sitting on the edge of the road, waiting for any signs of Heartless for them to fight and for the Asian man to finishing working on the Gummi ship. It was Eddy's decision to sit out by the road and wait for Heartless while it was Double D's proposition to go find the keyhole on this world, and Ed's... Ed's option of doing something should not be mention, due to sheer amount of ridiculous. All that can be said is that it involves the mummy Heartless they heard about from Muriel and Evil Tim. That is all.

In the background, Courage is digging through the yard, searching for any item that he buried during his youth. During his salvage, he discover a lost photo of Eustace and Muriel, a leftover sandwich that reeks of vinegar, a bag of money, a bone, an anchor, and a ladder. Courage looks in his hole in disappointment, sad that he did not find the item he is seeking, and he starts his climb out of the hole.

As he is getting out of the hole, he can feel the ground beneath him shaking. After it stops, he looks around his setting to check where the source came from. The Asian man is getting through halfway of the Gummi ship, the Eds are arguing about something, and there is nothing in the hole Courage made that can cause the earth to move like that. And he knows that Nowhere does not get earthquakes, and he should have known that the earth was going to shake, but it did not appear to be a natural earthquake.

_Now I know something is up, or my name isn't Lloyd Cody Floyd_, said Courage. _And thank goodness it's __**not**_.

The ground shakes again and Courage looks towards his right to notice a disturbing sight in the horizon. He lets out a scream, which cause some of his teeth to fly out and his eyes shooting out of their sockets and he snaps back to normal to continue screaming and running in the opposite direction of what is coming towards him. The Eds look behind them to notice Courage running towards them and the pink dog latches onto Ed, clinging on to his dear life as the dog trembles in fear.

"What is it doggy?" asked Ed.

Courage backs away and he starts his babbling, all while shape-shifting once again. The Eds watch as Courage cycles through some of the forms he can turn into.

"Oh great, this again," moans Eddy.

"Hold on, I think the dog is trying to warn us here," said Normadomus. "And by what he is saying... he's trying to tell us about the Heartless!"

As Courage continues to babble and change forms, Normadomus begins to read off some of the forms the dog is turning into. First the hat starts with a brown headed ghost with a white body and yellow hands, a "Living Pod," follow by another ghost with a blue head, dark blue body and white hands, a "Grand Ghost," which leads to a small black creature that is shape like a Shadow, and a large round ball with three antennae, a "Darkball," then a mummy call a "Wight Knight," and finally a large brown eagle-like with a club tail Heartless call a "Dustflier."

"Oh my, this is bad," the hat said. "A Darkball, a Grand Ghost and a Living Pod are bad. Darkballs are dangerously unpredictable, which can lead them to attack without warning and when they strike, they go into a frenzy. Grand Ghosts, however, can't be defeated by normal means. You got to use some sort of healing spell or item to take those Heartless down. And Living Pods..."

"Yes?" all three Eds asked.

"Well, it's best that you stay away from as best as possible."

"Why?" asked Ed.

"Because if a Living Pod catches you in its sight, then it will chase after you and drain every single ounce of energy that is driving your body! It's best that you take it down from far away, probably with a Fire spell."

"So then, what exactly is _that_?" asked Double D, pointing towards the horizon.

Normadomus focus on the horizon, trying to see what is coming towards them, but notices that the large group is aiming at the farmhouse. The hat grows a disturb look, upon realizing that the very large Heartless leading the group. The hat tries to mutter something, only to choke on his words before Ed gives his hat a good whack in the back.

"Prison Keeper," he muttered.

"What?"

"That Heartless," Normadomus mutters. "That's Prison Keeper. But... what is it doing out here?"

"Well, whatever it is doing, it looks like it's going for the house," stated Double D.

_Oh no, Muriel is in there!_ Courage shouted in his mind. _Don't worry Muriel, I'll save you!_

Courage begins to run towards the farmhouse, where he stops dead in his tracks as Shadows surround him and a Dustflier swoops in to drop in the red cat Katz. Courage lets out yet another scream, this time in fear of seeing the one being he does not want to see. Katz, on the other hand, is staring down at Courage, not worrying one bit about the dog's concerns.

"Hello dog," said the cat. "Fancy meeting you like this."

"Hey, get away from him!" shouted Eddy.

Katz looks up to notice Eddy's shield flying towards the cat. Katz did not bother to move at all, only to have a mummy Wight Knight to catch it with its long fingers and to tug on the shield. Ed grabs onto Eddy's shirt and pins the Ed to the ground, allowing the shield to recoil back and pull the Wight Knight along. A Living Pod decides to hitch a ride, and Ed stops this by letting a Thundara go loose, zapping both Heartless.

The greedy Ed catches his shield and he notices Double D running forward, with hopes that he can save Courage. But out of nowhere, a Darkball jumps right in front of Double D, surprising him from below as the Heartless goes into its frenzy and tries to rip the Ed with everything it owns. Double D blocks with its attacks with his Keyblade, but the Darkball proves to be strong for the Ed. He backs away, allowing some space between him and the Darkball, and he tries again to attack.

The Darkball spins around and Double D got his hit, slicing right through the Heartless and allowing the shadow being to disappear into thin air. The Ed lands on the ground and he looks up to notice the towering Prison Keeper floating behind Katz, with several Dustfliers circling around the giant Heartless and Eustace sitting in the cage. With a few Heartless moving towards him, Katz orders for them to stop and the cat walks up to the Ed in a hypnotic way.

"You there, boy. I believe you have something valuable that employer seeks," the cat said. "Hand it over."

"You're also seeking the Keyblade, too?" Double D asked. "Well, you can't have it."

"You won't give it up, will you? Well, allow me to demonstrate something to you. As you can see, this Heartless hovering behind me is call Prison Keeper and it can absorb whatever power from whomever it swallows."

To demonstrate its powers, Prison Keeper raises its hands to its head and starts to concentrate. The air around them starts to vibrate and the ground is rumbling, as Prison Keeper is struggling with whatever it is concentrating on. As the Heartless tenses, the area continues to vibrate, and everyone is trying to keep their ground before every stop moving and they can hear a loud bang. The Eds look in the direction of the explosion, only to notice the top half of the farmhouse hovering in the air before slamming back down and locking into place with its lower half.

The Eds are baffled by such power can do that sort of thing, even to allow a heavy top half to float in the air before coming back down and lining up with its lower half without crushing it. "... Physics are weird," mutters Eddy.

Muriel walks up onto the porch, carrying a mixing bowl in her hands, and she takes notice of her home. "Now what exactly is going on out here?" she asked.

Prison Keeper turns to face Muriel and it reaches out to grab her with its bony fingers. Muriel lets out a scream in terror, all before being swallowed by Prison Keeper. Courage looks in horror as his most beloved owner is eaten whole and he tries to let out a scream, only for his body to fall back and leaving his jaw floating in the air. The bones eventually fall to the ground and every single teeth scatter upon hitting the dirt.

"That's disgusting," said Ed flatly.

After swallowing Muriel, the woman falls into the cage and Prison Keeper begins to change, jerking its head back and forth to appear as if it is choking. Then the Heartless opens its mouth and out comes a barrage of burning green acid, which hit a few flying Heartless and some on the ground, and the Eds, Courage, and Katz got out of the way to prevent the acid from burning them. Once a puddle is set, the boys take notice of the acid's stench, and Ed reaches down to stick a finger into the acid to put a glob into his mouth.

"It's... vinegar?" he stated, a bit confused about what he tastes.

"Vinegar?" echoed Double D. "Now that can't be right. Vinegar isn't that strong of an acid in the first place. Its pH level has to be low enough to be considered corrosive, and it is nowhere close to that."

"Unless you have in concentrated amounts," said Normadomus.

"But why vinegar?" asked Eddy.

"Perhaps it has to do with me putting vinegar in all of my recipes," Muriel stated from the cage.

The Eds look at each other in disgust, remembering some of the food Muriel offered to them before. Double D, Eddy and Normadomus begin to spit out some of the food they ate, though it is a feeble attempt as the food is now in their stomachs, and Ed is smiling as always. He does not mind the vinegar in the food, though he will mind that if it contained some gravy.

With this distraction in play, the Heartless make their move on the Eds and Prison Keeper got busy to deal another acid attack. Normadomus notices the wave coming towards him and he throws up a Reflectaga to protect all three boys from the Heartless and soon to be acid. Katz looks in anger at the boys protecting themselves, until it hit him that he can use this power to his advantage. Seeing this, he orders for Prison Keeper to remove Eustace and toss him away. With the order set, the large Heartless got to work and remove the man from the cage.

"Hey, what's the big idea?" he asked.

No one answered his question as Prison Keeper spins around one time before chunking Eustace across the landscape. Everyone watches as the man is sent packing and no one really cares that he is sent flying. Once out of sight, the Heartless turn to attack the Eds and Katz moves in on Courage to deal with him, but Courage got a running starts to his home, all with him screaming at the top of his lings. Katz watches as his target enters his home, and he allows his tail to sway back and forth.

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Katz, being lifted up by Prison Keeper. "I need to get the boy's weapon and hand it over to my employer. Then I will focus on the dog and get rid of him permanently."

With that motion in play, Katz order Prison Keeper to lower an arm down and the cat got onto the hand to be raise up to Prison Keeper. Once on, Katz orders the Heartless to go up into the sky, in hopes that they can be safe from the Eds. The boys are dealing with the Heartless that are towards the ground, taking each down one by one, as the Eds look up to notice Katz moving away from the battle.

"Oh great, now we have to go chase him down," moans Eddy.

"We need to do something about that Heartless," said Double D. "If it continues to spew acid at us, we'll be crisp in no time."

Courage is now in the attic of his home, where this is a couple of cardboard boxes sitting in a corner, a window staring out to the front yard, and a desk with a computer on it. Courage hurries towards the computer, grabbing a bucket for him to give him a boost and he got the computer running. Once on, the dog rapidly types on the keys, getting his message in as the computer processes the message.

"**So... you want to get help on these so-call 'Heartless?'**" the computer asked in a British monotone.

_Yes, yes!_ Courage stated as he furiously types away.

"**Searching... Oh my... you seem to have quite a lot of results here, mostly stuff you shouldn't be reading**," the computer replied. "**Try being more specific.**"

Courage shoots a disgusted frown at this and he went back to typing. _Black... Creature... Heartless... Thingies._

After hitting enter, the dog waits for the computer to get the results, only to receive... "**I got nothing. Please try again**."

_Sheesh, and I thought you have something, you useless piece of_...

"**Oh, there is something here**," the computer said. "**If you want to defeat these Heartless, all you need is something call a Keyblade or some form of magic, but how can you do that when you're just a twit?**"

Courage shoots a raspberry at his computer. "**Touché**," is the computer's response. The pink dog only waves the computer off as he walks up to the window to check on the progress outside. He can see that the Eds are making little progress with Katz, as the villainous cat is using his Heartless to easily knock the Eds down and to toss Eddy up to the attic of the farmhouse. The small Ed crashes right through the wall, only to land on the other side of the room, and he quickly recovers from his fall.

Eddy walks up to the hole and then over to Courage. "All right doggy, you're coming with us," he said, picking Courage up.

_But I don't wanna_, Courage whines in his mind.

Eddy drags Courage down as he skids along the farmhouse, using the roof of the porch to launch himself off and straight at Prison Keeper. The large Heartless notice the Ed flying towards it and he takes a free hand to snatch Eddy, but the Ed uses his shield to deflect the grab and fall to the ground. Courage, however, is sent flying up into the air and Prison Keeper reaches out to grab the pink dog and swallow him up. The Eds watch as the Heartless begins to change to its new power, taking up a supersonic screech similar in sound to Courage's screams.

Ed rushes in and catches Eddy in time, and he lowers the defender as Eddy catches his fallen shield. The Eds look up to notice that Prison Keeper is charging up a screech, as a few Wight Knights drop down from passing-by Dustfliers. Double D got his Keyblade ready and he bats the Wight Knights in time to allow the mummies to go flying towards Prison Keeper and get caught in its screech. With the mummies gone, Katz orders Prison Keeper to keep on attacking the Eds with its screeching and the Heartless charges up for one more, but everyone notices that Courage is hanging outside of the cage.

"What the...? How did he get out of there?" asked Katz. "No matter. I will deal with the dog personally."

"Eddy, he's going after Courage!" shouted Ed.

"Well are we going to do something about it?" questioned Eddy. "I rather not go near that thing if it is going to eat us alive."

"Then how about I'll go and save Courage?" offered Double D.

"But how? You don't have anything that can defeat that cat or that Heartless?"

"I did mention that I saw a light coming from the Keyblade, so maybe I can use that to take down this Heartless," the smart Eds said, holding up the Keyblade with both hands.

On top of Prison Keeper's cage, Katz got the cage rocking, knocking Muriel around inside and Courage to flail about. Once the cage comes down, Courage is shaking all over upon seeing the red cat staring back down on him. "I don't know how you got out, but since you are out, how about some sport before you die," said Katz.

"Courage, don't do it!" stated Muriel. "If you do it, you'll fall to your doom!"

The dog looks down and he understands what his master is saying. It is a bit of a drop to the ground, as it will cause severe bone fractures upon the landing. But Courage did not worry about the drop, as Katz tugs on the dog's arm and reels him on top of the cage, where the cage rocks back and forth from the force and the two animals are lock in whatever Katz is planning.

On the ground, Double D is discussing a plan that will bring down Prison Keeper, defeat the surrounding Heartless and Katz, and rescue both Courage and Muriel. Once formulated, the Eds break and they begin to focus on the Heartless towards before turning to Prison Keeper. For the plan, it is to take care of the Grand Ghosts, Living Pods and Wight Knights on the ground and leave the Darkballs and Dustfliers in the air. With those in the air, Double D will use whatever light he has in the Keyblade and use it against Prison Keeper and hopefully bring the Heartless down.

Double D gives his Keyblade a spin before running towards the Heartless. One Living Pod takes notice of the charging Ed and begins to creep towards him, but Eddy flashes a Fire spell from Ed and knocks the ghost down. Double D jumps up onto a Darkball while dodging its fury attack, and he leaps onto a Dustflier by grabbing onto its tail. Once on, he got momentum to fling himself up at Prison Keeper, and he got himself spinning with the Keyblade sticking out.

"Oh, I don't think so old chum," said Katz, grabbing onto the chain and getting the cage to rock.

Once in motion, the cage got energy to deflect the incoming Double D and send him back towards the ground. The Eds on the ground notice the spinning Ed heading right for them and they begin to panic about what to do. Ed realizes that he is wielding the right item for this situation and he steps up to use the Nerd's Tools as a bat. With Double D spinning towards the Eds, Ed swings his staff and whacks the smart Ed back up to the Heartless. Now going faster than before, the spinning Ed casts his Light spell and starts to glow brightly as he gets closer and closer to Prison Keeper.

The Heartless begins to retract in fear of the incoming light, since the being fears the pureness of light, and the people that are on the cage are clinging on as Prison Keeper is moving back. Katz is keeping his posture straight and Courage is clinging on to his dear life, terrified by the turn of events, while Muriel is clinging onto the bars inside of the cage. Prison Keeper decides to open the cage and grab Muriel once again, only to swallow her and taking her power once again. The Heartless spits out its acid but Double D cuts right through the acid and keeps on spinning.

And he makes contact.

Right on the face, Double D collides with Prison Keeper right on its stitch, and the impact creates a small explosion of power to knock both beings back. Double D is flying back in success, noting that his Light spell added a boost to his attack and brought the Heartless' health down dramatically, while Prison Keeper is heading towards the ground in defeat, knowing that the Light spell is too strong for it and it brought down its health to dangerous lows. As for Muriel, Courage and Katz, they are hovering up in the air and gravity kicks in to drop all of them back towards the ground.

Katz takes this opportunity to reach over and grab onto Courage's neck to strangle him. "If I am going down, then I'm taking you with me!"

"Lay your hands off of my Courage!" shouted Muriel.

"Try and stop me!"

The Eds on the ground notice the situation in the sky and they begin to think of a way to rescue all of them, san Katz, without them crashing into the hard earth. They notice something up in the sky, in which they can see a glowing ring of fire dancing around Katz. The ring closes in on Katz, burning the cat up and releasing his grip on Courage. Everyone looks towards the source of the fire, only to note that Double D is the one that caused the fire ring to form around Katz and burn him up.

As soon as Courage, Muriel, Double D and Katz are near the ground, Normadomus casts an Aeroga right below the Ed, master and pet to cushion their landing, while leaving Katz to impact the hard earthy soil below. After a few minutes of riding on a cushion of air, the three drop down and the others gather near to check up on how well they are doing. The group turns their attention to the burnt Katz, who is twitching from being burned and landing on the ground.

"... I wish you hadn't done that," is all the cat can mutter.

"Well good riddance to that cat," said Muriel. "Trying to go hurt my poor Courage. What nerve."

She pets the now calm Courage, feeling relieved after the trauma he went through and the dog lets out a sigh of relief. In his mind, he is glad that this nightmare is over and that he is in the hands of a trusting master. However, this leaves the Eds still stranded on this world, with no possible way of getting off...

The sound of a horn is blaring in the open air, and everyone turns to see the _Midnight Hummer _coming up over the horizon, with the ship being towed by the Asian man's red convertible. Inside of the car is the man who repaired the ship and the tall foreigner Rolf, and the both of them wave to the Eds, and the Eds reply to this by returning their own waves.

"Hello Ed boys!" shouted Rolf. "Rolf now wishes to leave this world, as Rolf finds no luck in getting anything to grow out here."

"All right, you heard Rolf," said Eddy. "Let's leave this world!"

"Now hold on Eddy," said Double D. "We still need to find the keyhole."

As of saying that, the smart Ed can feel the sensation of a keyhole nearby. He looks over to the farmhouse, where the sensation is at its strongest, and he walks towards it only to lead him towards the sides of the house. He got himself to the doors leading to the basement of the house, and he opens the door to where he can feel this sensation more than ever. After he opens the door, light begins to gather at the bottom of the steps, forming the shape of the keyhole, and Double D takes out his Keyblade in order to seal the lock.

Aiming his weapon at the keyhole, a beam of light shoots out from the tip and enters the lock, allowing the beam to travel on and a click emerges. With that, Double D releases his grip and he returns to his friends with a smile on his face. Now that they seal another world, it is on to the next world and hopefully on to another adventure. The Eds board the ship and Rolf follows behind, and the boys stop to give a wave to Muriel and Courage, all before disappearing into the hull and closing the door on them. The ship begins to take flight, hovering off of the ground and the _Midnight Hummer_ takes to the skies once again as it shoots off into the atmosphere.

"Such a nice bunch of children," said Muriel. "I wonder if we'll see them again."

Courage gives a small shrug, having the same knowledge as Muriel about the Eds. Muriel turns to face her home and she begins to walk, and Courage takes notice of a Wight Knight rising up from the ground. The dog lets out one of his scream and he got himself straighten out look at the Heartless seriously.

"Now hold on a minute! I know that I shouldn't be talking out loud, but I got this one little thing to say," said Courage. "I said this once before, and I said it some time ago, so I'll say it again for a third time: This shouldn't be happening to a dog!"

OOO

Eustace is still sailing through the air, with his frail body rocketing over a town and out farther than he ever traveled before. Gravity finally decides to allow the man to drop back down to earth, but his landing is about to send him sliding across a bed of jagged rocks and into a farm of cacti. The momentum of his toss is immense as he collides with the ground, sailing right through the rocks and the cacti as he pushes onwards, only for the cactus field to end and come up to an edge of a cliff. Eustace only stops with half of his body leaning over the edge and the other half keeping him from going over.

The man is missing his hat from going through the cactus field, which makes it perfect for a black duck to land on his shiny bald head. With a quack, the duck flies off and Eustace begins to lean in, all with an egg perch on his head. The man starts his descent by hitting the first ledge and falling off to hit a spiky ledge. Repeat the fall and he hits a bonfire, which is then leading to an oddly placed fire hydrant. On the next ledge sits a blueberry pie and he lands in it to cover his face, all to lead to a goat knocking the man into the air.

While in the air, a cloud comes into a view and strikes a lightning bolt down on Eustace, electrocuting Eustace as he travels on down to the ground far below. On the cliff sits a chicken with a laser gun, and he takes aim at Eustace, getting his shot to hit the man right in the chest and closer to the ground. After a few short seconds, Eustace collides with a rock and slides down to his final resting place. He lets out a laugh in pain, only for the egg to peg him in the head.

And the man spontaneously roars into flames.

With the flames blazing, a brief rain storm forms overhead and washes out the flames, only leaving the ashes of Eustace behind. Then the _Midnight Hummer_ sails above where the ashes lie and the draft following behind the Gummi ship blows the ashes away, leaving only the glasses of Eustace behind.

"Stupid dog!" shouted the voice of Eustace.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Magic Shield_ – a move Eddy uses that takes his shield and allow him to use magic. Acts much like a reflector overall, but makes use of the magic spell.  
_Magic Spire_ – a move Double D uses that is similar to when Sonic the Hedgehog spins. Basically a spinning move that equips whatever spells Double D wants to use.

Well, it ain't much scary do to the fact that there are no visuals... but come on, there are some Heartless that'll scare the bejeepers out of you, even without being on this world. Well... Shadows are cute, but some of the others... yeah, that's for you to decide. I much rather drink my Nightmare Fuel and enjoy it.

So for this, I was having a hard time to decide whether or not to have Courage speak in this, since he did speak back in Season 1, but the executives made Courage into a gibberish speaking dog with only a few lines. Again, that's for you to decide. I rather liked the talking Courage (that, and Ringo doing the Duck Brothers), but it's all about taste.

And it can't be _Courage_ if I didn't "accidentally" kill Eustace, bring back our favorite psychopath of a cat, and that one Asian punk. ... Does he even have a name? Oh wait, he does, but I'm not going to put it in here. It's not like it's going to make any difference with the story in the first place. And speaking of which... you noticed Double D has picked up some new moves, one being Light and the other Scan. Scan is necessary due to its nature of reading the health of opponents and Light... I am not forgetting to add the Limit Breaks and this magic spell is going to be part of one.

And speaking of which... this marks the first time a Limit Break is use in this story. Every time that one is going to use, it gets mention at the end, giving the title and what it can really do. So you'll see single character moves, Eds-centric moves and the Eds teaming up with other characters to use their moves. I'll probably keep on saying this: this ain't your typical EEnE/KH crossover.

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. It seems like I am forgetting something... oh wait, I am. Well, you'll see what I mean in the next chapter.


	7. Act I, Ch 07: Townsville II

Well, we're nearing the end of this act, so what better way to end this with another world... OK, I have no idea what to do for another world during this time. Seriously, this era is more about comedy than action... and I can be wrong about that, and I don't know HOW many shows there were back in the Nineties...

Look, the more important matter is that I forgot to do the keyhole back on Townsville and it's my responsibility to have that keyhole seal by the end of this story. Wait, why am I saying that it's my responsibility? And then again... did I really forget to add the keyhole back in Chapter Four? Well, at least I can redo Townsville, only this time... I get to do something big. And I mean literally big.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Seven – Return to Townsville

OOO

With three worlds down and two keyholes sealed, the Eds are now toting one of the cul-de-sac children with them in their journey across the universe. Luckily, Rolf is in the guest room of the _Midnight Hummer_, meaning that he will not be a nuisance to the piloting Eds and not irritate Ed beyond breaking point. It is nice to have someone joining them on their journey, but Rolf has a limit for everything that Eds need to do. And there are many things that the Eds can list, but rather not say it in front of him.

"So Eddy, I notice that we have done three worlds, but we sealed two-thirds of these worlds," said Double D.

"Why are you using math?" asked the greedy Ed.

"If you must know, we're missing Townsville's keyhole, and I know we'd missed it. We need to go back and seal the lock there."

"But what about Rolf? We can't drag him along with us. He'll only slow us down."

"I have an idea," said Ed.

"Please Ed, I don't want to hear it," replied Double D. "If it involves you thinking of a plan, it is not going to be a good one."

"Especially out here," added Eddy. "Who knows what can happen, even without your magic."

"Aw, come on guys!" Ed whines. "I have a good idea that can keep Rolf busy while we're gone! Please, Eddy!"

Ed continues to whine, which is getting on both Eds' nerves. "All right, what do you have in mind?" asked the small Ed.

Ed backs away from the others and he raises a finger to point straight up. The boys wait for Ed to say something, but nothing is coming out of his empty head. His hat even decides to use the tip of his form to give Ed a few taps, but not even the zipper tip is fazing this Ed. For about a minute or so, Ed is standing there like the lump that he is, until he finally decides to open his mouth and let loose whatever he is plotting.

"Clones!"

Double D and Eddy stare blankly at their tall friend, knowing that his plan is obviously obscure. "Uh Ed... how exactly are we going to make clones?" asked the smart Ed.

"We need to get ourselves a cloning machine, and we need to extract something from our bodies so that we can use for our DNA, insert that into the machine and..."

"Ed, we don't have a cloning machine on this ship," Eddy blurted.

"And that, I doubt Dexter is going to have a cloning machine himself, let alone using it and sending the clones in space," Double D added. "We need something else that can keep Rolf busy while we are away."

"I actually like this boy's idea of clones," said Normadomus. "Since you learned Light, then why not do a Distraction."

"A Distraction?" parroted Double D.

"A Distraction is a Limit Break that allows the user to cast Light and temporary create an image of something, usually the caster of the spell, in order to distract his opponent."

"And how do I perform this?"

"Well all you need to do is swipe your Keyblade while doing Light," explained the hat. "It's not that hard to pull off. It's more like pulling off a magic trick with a sleight of a hand."

With that in mind, the Keyblade wielding Ed decides to try this out for himself. He got up from his seat and calls out his Keyblade. Gripping onto it, he raises his weapon up to him and allows some Light magic to form on the shaft. With a quick slash in the air, nothing seem to happen during those few seconds, only until after Double D puts his Keyblade away that he notices himself standing right in front of him. The duplicate is exactly like him and he is mirroring the same actions as Double D. Ed begins to laugh as the two Double D's move about the cockpit mimicking each exact movement, and Eddy got a few laughs in as Double D struggles with his double.

"And that's a Distraction," said Normadomus. "It'll be some time before you get use to it, but once you nail it, it'll be second nature to you."

The radar begins to beep and everyone focus on the device to notice a world is coming into view. As the Eds are approaching the world that houses Townsville, two blips flashes on the radar, indicating that there are two more children on this world. "Well, at least we have someone new to find," said Double D. "I wonder who it will be this time."

"I swear it better not be the Kankers or Sarah and Jimmy, especially Sarah," said Eddy. "For all that I care, there's no way that I want to deal with her this entire time while we're out here in space."

"You say Sarah's out here?" asked Ed, getting himself in on the conversation. "We need to go rescue her!"

"Ed, we're uncertain that Sarah is going to be in Townsville once we arrive," Double D answered. "For all we know, it can be the other children of the cul-de-sac, including the, heaven forbids, Kanker sisters."

"Eddy, we need to rescue Sarah! She might get eaten by the Heartless!"

"I don't see how that's a bad thing," mumbles Eddy.

"Eddy!"

"What?"

"Look, Ed misses his sister, and you have to go say that her getting eating by the Heartless is going to make us happy?"

"But Sarah has been mean to us nearly all the time! She deserves this more than anything that I can think of."

"But Eddy, she's my sister," Ed whines.

"And who knows Eddy, we might not see Sarah there at all," said Double D.

Eddy hesitates to say something, so he lets out a stream of breath. "All right, but if it does turns out to be Sarah and Jimmy and Sarah's starts shouting at us for no apparent reason, I'm gonna cry."

With that set, the smart Ed got his hands on the controls and he pilots the _Midnight Hummer_ towards Townsville, with another chance to view this world and go get the keyhole seal.

OOO

The city of Townsville is still in its peaceful state as when they were previously here, as they know the Powerpuff Girls are protecting the fair town. With Mojo lock up in jail, there is no threat of him terrorizing the town and that means the Eds have their work cut out for them. The Eds got the _Midnight Hummer_ over the over the suburbs and got the ship to come in for a landing, knowing that it is safe for them to land here after getting the girls' word on it. Once on the ground, the door opens up and the Eds walk out to take their steps back into Townsville.

"You know Double D, I don't understand why you were worrying about messing with other worlds' affairs," said Eddy.

"I said meddling, not messing," the smart Ed said, correcting Eddy's mistake. "And we should be worry. Who knows who can be watching us?"

Ed steps out of the Gummi ship and he raises a finger. "That's disturbing."

"I think the same thing Ed," said Double D. "This can lead into the getting the suspicion of being watch and finding out that we are being watch."

Eddy takes the moment to check around his surroundings. "Do you feel a strange breeze or anything?" he asked, before realizing what he is saying. "Let's not worry about that. So Sock-head, since you clearly felt the keyhole last time, can you feel anything now?"

Double D is standing still, feeling the air around him, in hopes that he can sense the keyhole nearby. But sadly, there is nothing. This is strange to him, as he clearly felt the keyhole nearby in this exact area, but there is nothing here. In fact, he remembers feeling the presence of the keyhole coming from the girls' home, but why is this feeling not here? Is it perhaps that the keyhole is not revealing itself as of yet?

"Hey, what's taking so long?"

"Eddy, relax!" snapped Double D. He went back to his pose. "I am trying to find it, but I can't feel anything at all."

"You aren't feeling anything? But aren't you certain that you felt something before?"

"Yes, and it was coming from the girl's home, but..." his sentence trails off as he looks at the girls' home. "It is, as if, it resets itself when we left this world."

"What! It got reset!" barked Eddy. "Does that mean we have to go back to those other worlds and reseal those?"

"No it doesn't," answered Normadomus in a calm voice. "Once a keyhole is seal, those seals have a long time to hold before coming undone. We don't need to worry about heading back to those worlds unless we want to go see the people again."

"By what about here?" asked the smart Ed.

"Well, if my guess is right, I say it has to do with a boss within the area."

"A boss?" echoed Ed. "You mean like the monkey, the brain guy and the cat?"

"Yes, and their Heartless as well. You see, Heartless are normally uncontrollable by themselves and will go after anyone with a heart beating in their chest. However, it is possible to control them, but you must have a strong heart and willing to lead them to your whim. This will only set you on a course towards the darkness..."

"But how does this relate to the keyholes?" whines Eddy.

"In order to uncover the keyhole, we need a strong heart to fall and a location or item that is symbolic to this world to reveal the location of this world's heart," the hat explained. "The Heartless will go after a person with a strong heart and they will consider that person their boss, and if we take that heart down, then that can reveal the path to the keyhole."

"So this means that we need to take down another villain," said Double D. "But isn't that chimpanzee locked up in jail?"

"You don't need to use the same person over again to reveal the location of the keyhole. But then, there is always the factor of time that comes into play. I figure that if we stay here long enough, the keyhole will reveal itself again and we should be set to seal it."

"So now, we have time to worry about and another villain for us to fight," said Eddy. "I am getting sick of this constant fighting, but at least killing time is a good option."

The boy decide to head towards the girls' home to see that they are home and stay for a bit. As they are walking up to the door, they can hear the girls flying above their heads and they notice three streaks of light heading right through the windows of the white house. The Eds are standing there for a moment, staring how three little girls can fly through the windows without colliding with glass before realizing that there is no glass in the first place.

The Eds continue their walking and they got up to the door to allow Double D to take the lead and give a few raps on the door. Once he is done, he backs away and waits with his friends for someone to answer the door. After some time, the door cracks open and the Eds peer inside to see who is behind the doors. Upon seeing the large bug eyes of the girls, the three open the door and they are floating off of the ground with excitement on their faces.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," said Blossom.

"What are you three doing back here?" asked Bubbles.

"Oh we were in the neighborhood and we decided that to come in to visit you girls," answered Double D.

"Well isn't that sweet," said Bubbles. "Please, come in."

The Eds take up on this offer and enter the Powerpuff Girl's home. Once they are inside, the girls escort them into the living room, where there is a couch fit for seating three people, a lounging chair, a coffee table and a large cabinet with a television set sitting on one of the shelves. The boys take a good look around this room, as the girls behind them zip off to find whoever they are shouting.

Each Ed got themselves settle down on the couch and the chair, with Eddy and Ed taking the couch and Double D the chair. Ed notices the remote sitting on the coffee table and he picks it up to turn the television on and see what is on in this world. As the screen is warming up, they can hear the sound of can laughter and the sound of two voice actor slurring out obviously lame puns dealing with the word "bonk."

"Is this really entertainment?" asked the greedy Ed.

"I'm sure it is to those of the younger generation," replied the smart Ed.

The tall Ed is processing the image that is being display on the screen in his head. "... I think that this is being funny," is his answer.

As the Eds are watching the television, they hear the girls coming into the room and they turn around to notice that they are accompanied by someone else. He is a man resembling much like a fatherly figure, but he is dress more like an older Dexter. He sports a lab coat suited for whatever science he is in, along with a pair of black suit pants and black shoes. However, his head is very square in design, with a cobble pipe in his mouth and combed jet black hair similar to Buttercup.

The man steps into the living room with a hand to his face, mainly to grab his pipe, and he studies the Eds with a straight face. "So, you three are the Eds I've been hearing about," said the man.

"Yes we are," replied Double D.

"Well, please to meet you," the man stated, extending his free hand. "I'm Professor Utonium, the girls' father."

"A professor, eh? Tell me, what field of science do you partake in?"

"Oh well I am not much into a certain profession, but I have done some work with chemistry."

Eddy lets out a groan, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Are we going to have this going all day?"

"No Eddy, we're not," Double D responded, sounding agitated. "I am sorry about that. Eddy doesn't like anything relating to school, so if we want to continue our discussion elsewhere..."

"No, no, there's no need," said Utonium. "If your friend wants

"Say, if you're the girls' father, then where's the mother?" asked Ed, noting a key figure missing in this family.

"Yeah, about that... we don't have a mother," said Bubbles.

"Oh dear," said Double D, sounding sad about hearing this.

"You see, I was the one that created the girls in the first place," answered Utonium.

The smart Ed throws the professor a baffle look. "You... made three girls?"

"Correct. I always wanted to have some girls of my own, so I decided to create them in my lab using the key ingredients to make three perfect little girls: sugar, spice and everything nice."

"Then what makes me up?" asked Ed.

"If I remember correctly, it should be some hair, snails, and puppy dog tails," answered Normadomus.

"I think Ed here is made up of gravy and buttered toast," snickers Eddy.

"Now after mixing the ingredients, my old lab monkey got into a fit and pushed me into some Chemical X, which spilled into the mix and then I got the girls," the professor finished.

The Eds are looking at each other, the professor and the girls, with each boy giving a confuse look about what they just heard. If it is possible for one man to take such ingredients as everyday spice, some processed sugar and everything that girls enjoy, throw them together into a pot and mix them to form a blend, and adding one extra chemical to make three super powerful girls with abilities similar to that of a typical superhero. Double D is starting to break down the process and get a true answer about this, Eddy skips the thought all together, and Ed is grinning ear to ear about this thought all while skipping the science part.

Yes anything is possible, even if the Eds can not truly grasp this concept of creation.

As the Eds are pondering over this, they can hear the sound of beeping coming from down the hallway and the girls zip down to stop the beeping. After a few seconds, the girls zip right by the living room and out into the open, where the males can see the streaks of light crossing the sky as the girls head to Townsville to fight whatever evil is terrorizing the city.

"Does this happen often?" asked Normadomus.

"It does. This is what you get when you're the father of three superpower girls," replied Utonium. After answering the question, the professor shifts his attention towards the asker. "Excuse me, but may I see your hat?"

Ed takes a look up at the brim of his hat and he places both of his hands onto Normadomus. Lifting the hat off of his head, the Ed hands the wizard over to the professor and the man takes the hat to give it a full examination. Utonium looks over Normadomus at every angle, checking every stitch that makes up this hat, and even looking inside to notice the zipper that makes Normadomus' mouth.

"Interesting. I have never seen such a hat that has the ability to talk and have a face," the professor said.

"Well have you ever met one that can do magic as well?"

Utonium shakes his head in response. "Thought so," said Normadomus. "A man of science like you shouldn't believe in magic in the first place. That is, if you can figure out how things are done."

"What are you saying?"

"I need your brain power to help figure out how I became a hat and if there is anyway that I can turn back into a human," the hat answered, using the tip to point at Utonium's head.

Utonium tilts his head to the side, looking over Normadomus to look at the Eds before shifting his head back on Normadomus. "Are you sure you boys don't mind keeping this hat for the time being?" he asked.

"We're fine without him," answered Eddy. "We can handle anything those Heartless throw at us."

"Are you sure?" this time Normadomus asked. "You know that I am the only one that knows Cure, and I fear that the boy I'm resting on is going to go crazy with his magic."

"There's nothing to worry about," said Ed. "I'll use my powers for good."

"And we'll make sure of it," said Double D, adding that trustworthy sentence in.

Utonium and Normadomus look at each other before giving the Eds a final look, reassuring that they can be truthful about their word and not get into anything serious without the hat. "All right then, I'll be off," said Utonium. "I'll give you a shout in case I come across anything."

The professor gives the Eds a wave goodbye as the man heads off to the basement and begins doing his research. As the boys got to settle down back in their previous positions, they can hear the sound of crashing outside so they rush to the window to spot several Heartless outside. A group of Large Bodies are going about doing some destruction, along with a few Grey Caprices, Shadows, and Hot Rods.

"Finally, we got ourselves some action," said Eddy.

"So if the Heartless are a link to a boss, then that means we can find that person nearby," mutters Double D, remembering what Normadomus said earlier.

"Can you guys call me a Sage?" pitched Ed.

The others look at him briefly before brushing off the idea and heading outside to take on the Heartless wave. Once out, Eddy jumps onto his shield and skids his way down to allow the Jumbo Jawbreaker to take down a few Shadows. Double D summons Joker's Wild to his side and starts to face off against two Hot Rods, who are making donuts around the Ed, and he unleashes his new Fire spell on the two cars. Ed got his staff twirling, crackling lightning for a Thundara spell, and he unleashes that on the surrounding Grey Caprices and Large Bodies.

With a few down, Eddy takes his shield and tosses it down the way, cutting through the Shadows before returning to his hand, slicing right through the backs of Large Bodies on the way back. Ed is having no trouble launching fireballs at the Grey Caprices, as the surviving members dance about and launch a few Space spells to counter Ed's magic. For Double D, he is squaring off against a few Hot Rods and one red car, which is similar in design to the Hot Rod but has a red body instead of blue. The cars speed right towards the smart Ed, and the boy decides to use his new skill against these Heartless, taking his Keyblade to cast one Distraction and cause the Heartless cars to stop dead in their tracks.

For the illusion, the cars are seeing is a large brick wall in which, if it were to be real, will allow the Heartless to crash into and be turn into scrap metal. That is, if they were real cars to begin with. But the Heartless stop in time before they can crash, looking over the wall to make sure that this is not a trick, and the caster of the Limit Break appears stealthily behind the Heartless to use another Fire spell. Once the flames close in on the Heartless, the cars disappear and their hearts float up into the heavens, and Double D takes his Keyblade to give it a good twirl.

"Nice going Sock-head," said Eddy, "but can you help me out over here?"

"Right away Eddy."

Double D got over to where the small Ed is and got to work dealing with the Large Body, who is trying to take a bite at Eddy, but Double D got in the middle in time to prevent the Heartless from getting at the greedy Ed's heart. The Large Body struggles with the Keyblade bearing Ed as Eddy takes this opportunity to get behind the Heartless and take it down. However, a Grey Caprice got into a view and cast a Space spell on the small Ed, causing him to feel distorted before getting blown back by the spell. Ed can hear Eddy coming towards him and he takes his staff to bat the flying Ed right back towards the Grey Caprice and take it down.

After some struggling, Double D breaks free from his stalemate with the Large Body, only to get behind the being and defeat it. Once the heart is sent up, the boys check around their surroundings, noting that they clear every Heartless that is in the area, all without the help of the Powerpuff Girls. But they can feel that the girls need some help and they are all the way in town, which is quite a walk from where they are.

"So you have any idea on how we're getting there?" asked Eddy.

"We can take our ship and fly over there," said Double D.

"But where are we going to park it? The last time we did that we got it on top of that one building!"

"True, but all we need to do is find a location that allows helicopter landings and..."

"Your idea is boring," said Eddy. "Can't we find a faster way to get into town, say a motorcycle?"

"Oh sure Eddy, and allow me to use my Keyblade to do that as well," Double D sarcastically stated.

"You can do that?" Ed asked excitedly.

"No Ed, I can't. I don't know if my Keyblade can allow me to do that."

"Then how about you put your money where your mouth is," said Eddy. "If you can make your Keyblade into a motorcycle, I'll clean all of your hats when we get home."

"And what if I don't succeed?"

"Then..." Eddy trails off as he tries to figure out a good deal. There is something that he wants to do, but he knows that his plans are not that humiliating.

"How about you wear my clothes for a whole week?" pitched Ed. "I haven't washed them since school got out for winter break, and—"

"Ed, that's disgusting!"

"Well, if you can't do that, how's about telling us about who've you been dating?" said Eddy, now liking where this is going.

Double D exchanges nervous glances between Eddy and Ed, knowing that the greedy Ed got him into a spot where he cannot refuse spilling everything he knows and to the tall Ed about how he is wearing the same clothes since he got... Now wait a minute. To the smart Ed, he knows for certain that Ed's clothes are at least fresh when they got into Traverse Town and it has been some time since they have been wondering space and planet hopping to where Ed's clothing are not that repulsive as they were home.

Bolstering his confident, Double D turns to face Eddy with a determine face and he gives the greedy Ed a nod in response. Holding up Joker's Wild, the smart Ed concentrates on how to get his Keyblade to shape-shift into a motorcycle for them to use. The seconds pass by, following by minutes, as Double D is standing there with a white forming fist and sweat dribbling down his face. The other Eds watch in anticipation, wondering if that Double D can really pull this off.

"Is he alive?" whispered Ed.

"Why don't you give him a poke with your staff?" Eddy replied, also whispering.

Ed nods to this and he takes the joystick end of his staff to give Double D a few light pokes in the back of the head. With nothing succeeding, he twirls his staff around to allow the sphere to knock on the smart Ed's capped hat a few times. After a few knocks, a light emits from the Keyblade and both Ed and Eddy back away as they notice Joker's Wild glowing a bright white light. The light consumes Double D and once it dims, the others notice that the Keyblade is gone, only to replace it with the said motorcycle that Eddy wanted.

For this motorcycle, the design is very similar to Joker's Wild's guard, with the color scheme alternating between red and blue. The body has a slick design, with plenty of curves all over, and there is no sign of an engine block to power this machine. Instead, there is a glowing energy sphere encase inside of a clear box right underneath where Double D is sitting. As for the Ed, he is sitting on a dark grey leather seat the Keyblade made for him, along with another seat to sit another Ed, and the boy is gripping onto the silvery handles that makes the shaft of the Keyblade. There is a tall silver spoiler rising up behind the passenger seat and there is only wheel on this motorcycle, with the back wheel on and the front to be replaced with a hovering device.

Eddy lets out a whistle in excitement, looking over the beauty of the motorcycle, and he quickly remembers his bet with the knowledge that he has to clean Double D's ski hats of they ever get home. As Eddy is glooming over the lost of their bet, Ed walks up to Double D and ask if he can ride behind him. With a nod, the tall Ed jumps up onto the passenger seat and he got himself comfortable, and Double D got a feel on his motorcycle as he revs the engine a bit.

"Want a ride?" asked the smart Ed.

Eddy looks up from his gloom to notice that Double D is heading into town without him. With no room for him to fit, an idea went off in his head and he digs around in his pockets to find his yo-yo's. Sure enough, they are still with him and he takes out one of them to use on the spoiler, wrapping the toy around and getting a good grip on the string. Once he is sure about his means of transportation, he got his shield off his back and plants it on the ground to get his feet onto his weapon.

"Let it rip!" shouted Eddy as he takes his goggles and place them over his eyes. "Get this bad boy into high gear and roll out!"

"Will do Eddy," replied Double D, as he revs the engine some more getting into motion. With the Joker Hovercycle speeding down the road and Eddy tailing right behind, the Eds ride down the street towards their way to Townsville in hopes of helping the Powerpuff Girls in whatever they need.

OOO

Outside of Townsville, even outside of the world's dimension lays home to a sort of being that rests peacefully, say to that if this being does not have a grudge against the Powerpuff Girls. For whatever lives within this dimension, this being lives in a grand style, with grand furniture that will make a wealthy family envy this being's wealth, despite having no true means of exiting and entering the dimension, only except teleportation. There sits all luxuries of a fine quality chair, plush carpeting, a fireplace and a bathtub.

Along with the furniture, in the air dance Heartless that look very similar to each other but are different by their design. Two are which very similar by being red and sporting an orange cap on their heads, but their armless bodies has different patterns on them, with one having yellow curves on a red body and the other being gray with two orange stripes going along the top and bottom edges. And the other Heartless is different in colors, with its hat a brown with a white radial pattern and its body as dark as its inky black skin. However, all three share the same coming pattern of bearing the emblem on their bodies.

Along with the Heartless in the air, there are also Heartless on the ground with only two different types, and these two are nothing like each other. The first Heartless is a bouncing creature with no arms or legs and it is red all over, with its head resembling like a music note and a mouth that takes shape of a trumpet. The second Heartless resembles much like a dog, but looks goofier than a typical dog with it having bigger forelegs and its hind legs, a crooked tail, a spiked collar going around its short body instead of its neck, and a smile similar to Prankster's own.

There sleeps two dogs in the room, both evenly space between each other as if they are guarding one side of a door, while the Heartless in the air are dancing to the beat of the musical Heartless plays a few notes out of their mouths. With the music playing, there is the sound of water splashing in the background, as the being that calls this home is lounging inside of this tub as the commotion is going on before it. With one Heartless hopping towards the tub, a claw latches out and a snap around the Heartless' neck, hoisting it up and brought forth to the being's face.

"Now my dear Heartless, is there any need to be playing that same tune over and over again?" the being asked in a calm, hypnotic tone.

The Heartless can only squeak a few notes. "I see. Well, if you don't stop, I may as well tear that horn off of your face!" the being roared, changing its tone from calm to aggravated.

The red Heartless lets out a squeak in fear, flailing back in forth in the being's grip in hopes of breaking free. With such a thought running through its head, the being decides to let the Heartless go by dropping it over the edge and down onto the dry floor below. The being is not much of acting cruel; it is more hatred that fuels this being into wanting to see the Powerpuff Girls defeated in such a humiliating way anyone can think of. Killing off one Heartless is not going to do this being justice if it wants to beat the girls.

With the water splashing, a cold black eye wanders to the left to notice another being waiting in the room. "So Blitzer, what brings you to my domain at this time? Came to check up on my progress?"

The wolf returns a nod. "I'm guessing that your hunt has been unsuccessful, yes?"

"Of course. How can I, the almighty Him, go about and find this Keyblade and a Pure Hearted? I do have an all access over Townsville, but those two items you and Father are seeking are painfully annoying to find."

"Well I can assure you that you can find both the Keyblade and the Pure Hearted in one location," said Blitzer. "The Pure Hearted is located in the city, fighting the Heartless you sent there, and the Keyblade is going to the exact location of that battle."

The being in the tub leans over the edge and takes a hand to form a cloud with the images of a battle taking place. In the view, the two can see the three Powerpuff Girls taking on the same Heartless that are in this room, along with the other Heartless that roams the streets of Townsville.

"You're saying that one of the girls is a Pure Hearted?"

"Yes."

"But taking one of them isn't that easy," said the being. "Sure it is possible, but for someone like me..."

"You're a demon!" growls Blitzer. "You can easily take those girls down with your eyes close! How can you say that they aren't easy to catch?"

The being stares at the Unversed a bit before flashing a smile. "Now there's a reason why I like you. You have the confidence to bolster anyone up, and yet you're just as dimwitted as that ghost boy that is with you."

"Dimwitted?"

"Now, now Blitzer, do you want me to send you back to Father in a doggy bag?"

Blitzer can only snarl at this, knowing that fighting a demon like this one will beat him in no time flat. "You can try all you want, but you have no idea what I am capable of."

"And why do you say that? An Unversed like yourself is made out of the negativity of other people's emotions, while your friends are made out of the darkness of people's hearts and the empty shell that is their bodies. You are capable of emotions because you are emotions, while your Heartless friend is only insane with the darkness flowing through him and your Nobody friend is incapable of emotions whatsoever. You should use your abilities to your advantage. Who knows? You may come into a situation where you need to use your negativity against your opponent in battle."

Blitzer begins to take note of what the demon is trying to say, processing the data as he begins to come up with methods to use if he ever gets into combat. Using your negativity against your opponent? Why has not he thought of that yet? This demon knows what he is talking about, and this will come as an advantage in case Blitzer needs to win a battle.

As the Unversed is juggling the idea in his head, the demon decides to get out of the bathtub and show off its body to the wolf. As it is getting out of the tub, the bubbles that are part of the bath cling onto the demon's body and each one slowly pop to reveal a dress underneath. What remains of the bubbles a form into a boa for the demon, topping off the being's more sensual design. This demon is wearing a one piece top with a black belt going around its waist, a pair of long black stiletto boots, and the pink boa. For hands, the demon is sporting of crab-like claws in which were used to grab the Heartless from earlier. And the demon looks very much like a male figure, with its head sporting black hair with the top of its head combed back and having a curl goatee on its chin, pointed ears, and yet there are no signs of horns on this demon.

It is no wonder why the demon calls itself Him.

As Him is walking away from the tub, it walks up to the Unversed to stroke his fur. "Now Blitzer, is there anything that I need to know about the Keyblade?"

"Well, there are a few things. One, the boy wielding it currently possesses the ability to use Light magic, which is far superior to the other magic types. Two, he is a very fast learner meaning he can learn something on the fly if needed. And three, don't allow that boy to use that Keyblade's Break."

"I understand," said Him. "You are free to go. I'll make sure to bring you the Keyblade and the girls like you ordered."

Blitzer nods in response and he makes his ways to where the two dog Heartless are sleeping. The Heartless wake up from their sleep and growl at the approaching wolf, and Blitzer returns with a snarl and a snap of his jaw, scaring both of the Heartless as the Unversed approach the wall. Blitzer turns his head back to face Him, only to notice the demon has a smile on its face, and the wolf lets out a smirk as he jumps through the wall to return to the real world.

Him watches as Unversed disappears and turns to face the viewing globe that is showing the battle taking place. With no signs of the Ed boys around and the girls getting beaten by the Heartless, Him can only smile as its plan is coming together flawlessly. "Now my Heartless dears, we are heading to Townsville to capture ourselves some Powerpuff Girls!" it stated excitedly in its more demonic tone.

OOO

Back in Townsville, the Powerpuff Girls are truly getting the beating of a lifetime, as the Heartless they were previously beating has somehow gain in numbers and gotten stronger. With only three of them and thirty of each Heartless, the girls are clearly outnumber, but they do like the odds. With each taking on ten a piece, the three girls split up to tackle the set, hoping that they can clear this batch before moving on to the next wave that is attacking the city.

Blossom flies towards where a Large Body is pulling up a telephone pole and it takes a swing with it, only for the redhead to catch it and reverse the effect on the Large Body. With the pole in hand, Blossom swings around to take out a few Hot Rods and its red counterpart, the Mad Bumpers, but another Large Body steps in to block the swinging. The two strong beings are pushing against the pole, using all of their strength against its wooden body before the pressure finally snaps the pole in two, breaking the telephone in two and allowing Blossom to use her end to defeat the Large Body.

Bubbles is dealing with the smaller Heartless that comprise of the Grey Caprices, the orange Scarlet Tangos, the red Crimson Jazzes, and the dark Black Ballades. She is admiring the cuteness of all of these Heartless, but the little ones are not as please of seeing her. The Grey Caprices let out a Space spell, which Bubbles dodges effortlessly, and a Black Ballade begins to dance around the girl as it makes copies of itself. The blonde knows that choosing the wrong copy will result in getting a shocking, so she waits for the real one to move and strike, causing the clones to disappear and Bubbles to charge at the other Heartless.

Buttercup, however, is dealing with an annoying set of Heartless, with her taking on Shadows, Mad Bumpers, the dogs known as Bully Dogs and bouncing trumpets call Flare Notes. The girl growls under her breath, knowing that the Flare Notes are very annoying and must be dealt with right away or otherwise she is going to be facing off against the same Heartless she took down before. With an idea in her head, she lifts up a street light from the ground and whips the pole around, taking down several Heartless in one swing but missing the Flare Notes. One of them begins to bounce around, all while playing a trumpeting noise, and Buttercup grits her teeth at this music.

"Oh shut up, will ya?" she shouted, chucking the metal pole at the singing Flare Note.

The other Flare Notes quickly react and shoot out fireballs from their mouths at the pole, in hopes of melting the pole before it can kill its comrade. However, the flames are not that hot enough to melt the pole in time and the pole pierces right through the singing Flare Note, causing it to disappear and Buttercup to wipe her hands in success. But her victory comes short as she notice the Heartless she previously taken down by the pole, and she mumbles to herself how it is a pain to take down the same Heartless all over again.

As the green Powerpuff is taking down the Heartless, she can hear the sound of an engine coming down the street and she twists her head away to catch a glimpse of the Eds approaching the battle. They are still riding on the motorcycle Double D summoned with his Keyblade, but it appears that vehicle itself is jerking all over. The smart Ed is having a time keeping the motorcycle from falling, Ed is clutching onto his seat for his dear life and Eddy is feeling the vibrations from the motorcycle through his yo-yo's string.

"Hey, can you keep this thing straight!" shouted Eddy.

"I'm trying, but remember that I just summon this thing," Double D replied. "I don't know how long the spell lasts nor how much more this motorcycle can..."

The Ed could not finish his sentence, as he collides with the metal pole Buttercup tossed and the motorcycle tilts up like catapult firing. The pole is big enough to prevent the boys from advancing, which is all that is needed to send the three boys flying across the street. Double D and Ed are sent only a few feet, with Double D arching slightly while towing the motorcycle in hand and Ed going farther to land on his face, skid across the asphalt and flips forward to remove his scraped face off the pavement. Double D lands hard on the ground with his hand still on the handle and he looks up to notice the vehicle falling down right up top of him, only to see the motorcycle change back into the Keyblade.

Eddy, however, is sent flying from the crash. With a foot dragging his shield, the boy is sailing over the street at a fast pace, going over the battle of Buttercup in a heartbeat. Eddy looks to see where he is heading, seeing only a front door as his target, and he tries to get his shield up in time to prevent a devastating blow. However, Eddy collides with the door and enters the home by storm, causing some damage inside of the apartment to distract the girls away from the battle.

Double D and Ed quickly recover from their fall and they race up to where Eddy is, dodging the Heartless as they made their way up to the apartment. Once they got up to the stairs, they notice the small Ed stumbling all the way out of the building, his eyes rolling and his movements swaying back and forth as he moves.

"Mommy, can you butter me up a bedtime story?" Eddy asked in a daze, before collapsing onto the floor.

The body slides the stairs and the others check up on him, seeing that he is all right, besides the hit to the head, from his crash. From behind, they can hear the girls wrapping up their fight with the Heartless, taking down one final Mad Bumper before turning their attention on the Ed boys.

"What are you guys doing here?" asked Blossom. "We thought you three were back at the house."

"Well, we decided that, with the Heartless and all, you girls may need some help in taking these things down," replied Double D. "Also, we're in search of some friends we know of. Perhaps you girls can help us out."

"We love to," answered Bubbles. "What do they look like?"

The two conscious Eds look at each other and the two begin to think about who can be on this world. They know for certain that there are two people on this world that belongs with them, but they are not certain on whom exactly. There is a chance of the two being two of the three Kanker sisters or Sarah and Jimmy, but there is a chance of it being Nazz and Kevin. As for Jonny... the boys know that it is impossible seeing him with anyone else after his little stunt he pulled on the Eds.

Double D gives the girls all of the descriptions of each child, explaining every little detail from how they look to how they behave around other people. The girls nod to everything that the Ed is saying, with the occasional slip of Ed's tongue about some random fact about the children. Once Double D wraps his speech, the girls look at each other and give each other nods upon getting every single detail store into their brains. With that, the girls fly off in a streak of light in search of the missing cul-de-sac children so that the Eds can take care of that while they are here in Townsville.

"Oh look here May, guess who I found?"

Ed and Double D tense up upon hearing the chilling voice. The look in the direction of where the voice came from, and Eddy begins to get up from his crash landing. "Oh man, what did I hit?" he groaned, rubbing his temple with one hand. He looks up to notice his friends jabbering something but he can not understand what the two Eds are saying. "Hey, mind telling me what's going on here?"

"E-Ed-d-d-y... K-K-K-K-K-K-K—"

"Who? What? Spill it Sock-head!"

The said Ed points forward to where the voice came from and Eddy quickly realizes who is standing before them. Coming up to them are two girls about the same as them, with one with a curly bed of red hair on top of her head that is covering her eyes, a white shirt with red polka dot spots, blue jeans, and some jewelry on her wrists and ears. The other girl is a blonde with two buck teeth sticking out of her mouth, and she is wearing a grey shirt and a pair of red pants. The Eds are cowering in fear as the two girls got closer to them, fearing of what these two can do with them.

"K-K-KANKERS!" shouted Eddy at the top of his lungs.

"Well ain't that cute. He still remembers us," the redhead joked. "Nice to see you too, Ed boys."

"Lee? May? What are you two doing here?" asked Double D, getting some confidence to ask that question.

"How the heck we should know?" replied the blonde. "We were sleeping in our trailer for most of the day until we heard a crash, and then we woke up here."

"So you girls have no idea how you got here?"

The two Kankers shake their heads no in response. "And to say, we also have no idea where Marie is. We checked all over this stinking city and we couldn't find a single trace of the girl," said the redhead Lee.

"You think that she may have found someone in this town to replace Double D?" asked the blonde May.

Lee returns the response with a raspberry. "Knowing her, she'll rather crawl on her knees to be with Double D than be with someone else."

The smart Ed can only let out a nervous laugh, now getting the eyes of Ed and Eddy staring him down. "But who knows?" continues Lee. "She may have found someone else and may be enjoying her life."

"I hope so, because that's one less Kanker to deal with," said Eddy.

"What did you say about Marie?" snapped May.

"Uh..."

"Look here Shorty, only we can diss our sister anyway we want," Lee growls, picking the small Ed by his collar. "You have no right to be talking that way about Marie or any of us if one of us is missing like her!"

"Who are you calling Shorty?" barked Eddy, breaking free from the redhead's grip. "I'll have you know that Double D here wields a sword that can cut through anything."

"A lightsaber?"

"No Ed," said Double D. He takes his best hand and summons Joker's Wild in his grip, allowing the Kankers to see what he wields. Once the light is gone and the girls can see it, the two of them start to crack up upon recognizing the shape of the Keyblade.

"Oh man, are you serious?" gasped Lee in-between laughs. "That is your sword?"

The Keyblade Ed takes his weapon and slightly blushes for his embarrassment. "I have yet to cut through everything, and I don't know what else this can do. I was given this without warning and I am still learning every secret that makes this thing up."

Eddy, however, is fuming how the Kankers are not impressed by what Double D is wielding in his hands. It is time for a chance of tactics. "Oh yeah, well Ed here got this flesh-eating hat that'll tear up your skin if you aggravate Ed here."

The Kankers stop their laughing to notice the said hat is missing from Ed's head. "What hat?" asked May.

"Oh you're lucky that his hat isn't with us," the greedy Ed said, continuing with his lie. "If he was here with us, you two wouldn't be laughing your behinds off right now."

"But Eddy, my hat doesn't do any of—"

Eddy slaps a hand over Ed's mouth to prevent the tall boy from saying anything farther on the topic. "Don't listen to him, he's doesn't really know that he has full control over his crazy hat," the greedy Ed said. That line got Ed's eyes to shine brightly and a large smile to grow behind Eddy's hand. "Yeah, Ed here has full control of his hat and if you are not careful, the hat will come here and will eat you alive!"

"You're bluffing," Lee stated. "There's no way that Ed can control a hat that can eat us alive."

"Fear me, ol' mighty demons of the Netherworld," stated Ed proudly. "I, Ed the Sage, command the all-mighty onslaught that is my hat. From the darkest pits of Hades, I rule my hat with an iron will and my hat shall rule over all the non..."

This time Ed is cut off by the sound of crashing coming from right behind them and everyone turns to notice that a long crater craved right down the middle of the streets. The Eds look at the end of the crater to notice the body of Buttercup lying unconscious from her blow, in which they figure that the blow was strong enough to knock the wind out of the girl.

"Look, you girls need to get out of here before you get caught up in this mess," Double D quickly stated.

"And why should we?" replied Lee.

To answer that response, another sound of crashing is right behind them, this time Bubbles is in the same crater as her sister. The Eds and the Kankers look at the crater with a worry look, knowing that they have gotten themselves in the middle of a battle and they can be wound up as the next target.

"OK, I think you have a point," said Lee. "But where do we go?"

"We have a ship in the suburbs. All you need to do is head in that direction and look for a two story building with three round windows," explained Double D. "You can't miss it."

"And what about you?" asked May.

"We got it cover..."

Yet another crash cuts off another Ed, this time Eddy, as the last of the Powerpuff Girls enter the crater to join her sisters. With no time to explain, the Kankers split away from the Eds as the rush over to check up on the unconscious girls. Double D feels each girl for a pulse and sure enough, the girls are still alive but they are not moving. As the Eds back away from the crater, they turn around to see the source that caused the girls to fall: the demon that is Him.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the demon said in its charming tone. "It appears that I may have not won this battle as of yet."

"What battle are you talking about?" asked Eddy. "We haven't fought you yet."

"Yes, not yet, but you will be," said Him. "You may know of my source Blitzer, correct?"

"We may have," Double D replied.

"Well according to him, he states that you have the Keyblade that he and Father are seeking, along with one of the Powerpuff Girls being a Pure Hearted."

The Eds take a few steps back in shock after hearing what the demon is saying. They look into the crater to stare at the unconscious girls, with the words of Him echoing in their heads. The girls, one of them is a Pure Hearted? Sure, they can easily agree that Buttercup can be rule out, since she does not show any true quality of being pure hearted, which leaves only Blossom and Bubbles. They turn around to notice that Him is closer to them now, along with some Scarlet Tangos hovering over the demon's shoulders.

"Now, if you will be kind as to let me through so that I can retrieve the girls?" Him asked.

"No way!" shouted all three Eds, getting their weapons out in defense.

"We're not allowing you to lay a single... claw on the girls!" stated Double D, realizing his previous sentence will be useless since Him's hands are crab claws.

"Oh really now? Well, since you can't allow me to have the girls, I guess I shall take you down," the demon said, jumping away from the Eds to allow them some distance. "I am in the mood to fight someone different and you three will provide me with that."

"Then take this!" shouted Ed, launching a Thundara spell.

The lightning bolt streaks down from the sky and heads straight for Him, but a Scarlet Tango intercepts with the strike and takes the damage for him. However, a little bit of the electricity did travel down to hit Him, but the full force of the Thundara is sent into the little Heartless. Static appear over Him's body, but it is not enough to even give the demon a slight tingle thanks to his body.

Ed tries to use a Fire spell, shooting a moderate size fireball at Him, but it takes a claw and snaps it shut on the fireball to cancel the attack. All three Eds' jaws drop upon seeing how just one being is easily taking down their attacks, only through his demonic strengths and the Heartless surrounding... An idea went off inside of Double D's head and he quickly whispers the details to each Ed. Once said, the Eds charge at Him but they are focusing their attack on the surrounding Heartless so that they have a better shot of landing their attacks.

However, Him intercepts this plan by running up and starts fighting back, with small dents forming in the street from the blows Him is dealing to the defending Eds. Each Ed use their weapons to block every last of Him's attacks, but one good roundhouse kick sent all three Eds sailing across the street and where the girls are. The boys recover quickly from the blow and they try again at attacking Him, but the same result plays over with a kick and a trip across the street knock the air out of all three Eds.

"OK, so maybe fighting without Ed's hat is a bad idea," moans Eddy.

"Oh really Eddy?" replied Double D sarcastically. "It isn't like we are giving our best on this demon in the first place!"

"Double D, you can see the health of others right?" asked Ed.

"Yes Ed, why?"

"You should see his health, right?"

"I should. I don't see why I shouldn't anyway."

Double D got up on his feet and he concentrates real hard on Him, straining his eyes as he tries to discover how much health this demon has. Thanks to Joker's Wild, Double D can see the health of the surrounding people and Heartless, so figuring out how much health Him has will not be a problem for Double D. However, after a minute, he comes to a shocking revelation and he starts to shake all over after he relaxes his eyes.

"What's wrong?" asked the small Ed.

"His... his health..."

"What about his health?"

"I... I can't explain it, but it is double than what we were previously fighting, possibly triple," responded the smart Ed.

"So what you are saying is that it is going to take twice as long to take this guy down?" shouted Eddy, now furious about the turn of events.

The Eds can hear the sound of moaning coming from the crater and they notice the Powerpuff Girls slowly rising up from their graves. With some injuries to their bodies, the girls struggle for a bit to stand up before fighting back the urge to fall back down. The Eds did offer to help the girls out, but they pull out a few bottles with a green liquid and they drink only a quarter of the bottles to reenergize them.

"All right Him, you are not getting away with whatever scheme you are up to!" stated Blossom.

"Him? Him who?" asked Eddy.

"Him," said Bubbles.

"Him?" Eddy repeated.

"Yes, Him."

"So what you are saying is that person's name is Him," said Double D.

"Pretty much," replied Buttercup. "I'm surprised it took you that long to figure that out."

"That's pretty lame for a name," said Eddy. "It sounds too confusing."

"You can say that again," the black-haired girl said.

"Look, it doesn't matter what I am called," Him stated. "All that matters to me is capturing one of you to be ship off to Father and that I can get my hands of that Keyblade."

"Well Him, you'll just have to get through us if you want to get what you want," said Blossom.

"I was hoping you will say that."

Him orders for the surrounding Heartless to gather around him and to build up over his body. As more and more Heartless jump onto the demon, a black figure starts to grow bigger and taller as the Eds and the Powerpuff Girls back away as the demon is growing. With the addition of the Heartless, Him is adding its own power to the mix, only to make the demon grow much faster as it surpasses the tallest buildings in the city and reach up to the skies above.

The Eds and the girls are craning their necks to see up to where Him is, and they can clearly see a giant version of the Heartless emblem printed on the demon's top.

"Well, it looks like we're screwed," said Eddy.

"No, we can take down Him," said Blossom. "I'm sure you guys can help us, will you?"

"Are you serious? We don't have the same firepower as you girls, plus we can't fly!" Eddy shouted.

A giant pincer clamps down on all six of them, trapping them in the claw as they are brought up close to Him's face. The demon laughs at them, mocking them for how puny they look, and it tosses all six back down at the ground. Hard. The crater is much larger from when the girl crashed, with the addition of the Eds joining in on the mix and the fact that the force they were going at is indeed enough to make such a reasonable size hole in the ground.

The six of them slowly climb out of the crater and lay down on the street, panting very heavily as the pain is overcoming their bodies. The girls reach for the bottles they use earlier and they take a drink, healing their wounds very fast as they hand the bottles over to the Eds. The boys take the bottles and decide to take a drink as well, with the green liquid flowing down their throats and their wounds healing as if they are using Cure. After drinking enough, the boys hand the bottles back over to the girls and they wipe their mouths off in unison.

"So, what was that?" asked Double D.

"Oh, those were a couple of Hi-Potions," answered Bubbles. "We never go into fights without them."

The Eds are staring at each other blankly, now knowing that they could have avoided all of their injuries if they have any potions on them. All three smack their heads in unison, with such a thought as the girls had the one source they need to heal them up without waiting for Normadomus. Each one let out a sigh and they got up on their feet to take a look at Him.

"OK, if we get off this planet, we need to get some Potions," said Eddy.

"I couldn't agree with you more," replied Double D.

"But what are we going to do about Him?" asked Ed.

"Well, we need to focus on attacking him from two spots," explained Blossom. "We'll fly up and attack Him in the face, while you three stay down here and focus on the feet. If we can weaken Him just enough, that should give us the chance to combine together and launch a super attack on him."

"And how exactly is that going to work?" the greedy Ed asked.

"We have our own special attack formations that we use sometimes to take down our bad guys," said Bubbles. "I'm sure that we can combine our moves with yours."

"But all we have is Double D's Keyblade, my lame shield and Lumpy's magic," said Eddy. "What can we possibly have that can be useful to you?"

A thunderous crash rings out in front of them and a cloud of dust is coming towards them. The six of them look towards where the crashing is coming from, only to realize that Him is on the move and the demon has its sight on the group. "Less talking, more beating," stated Buttercup.

The Eds nod to this and they charge forward to the feet as the girls to take the demon on in the skies. Once up at the demon's head, the Powerpuff Girls give Him everything they have to take this monster down, using all sorts of attacks from punches, kicks, thrown objects, improvised weapons, the works. Even the girls use their abilities to take Him on, but all of those moves are useless to the demon. Him takes a claw and swats the girls, knocking them away before they recover from the blow to try once again.

On the ground, the Eds are coming into a snag in their plan, as the surrounding area is litter with Heartless. A group of Flare Notes are jumping about, singing their reviving song as hundreds of Shadows, Mad Bumpers, Bully Dogs and Grey Caprices, and once the trumpets have stop they turn their attentions on shooting the Eds with fireballs. With this roadblock in the way, the boys decide to use this opportunity to take on these annoyances while dealing whatever kind of pain they can inflict on the demon Him. If this plan works, not only will they defeat the Heartless, they will inflict some damage to Him.

With that in motion, the first part is to deal with the Flare Notes. As noted, these Heartless can not only shoot fireballs but also heal Heartless and or revive them if fallen. Since that is going to be a problem to the Eds, this is the most important factor to this mission as fighting the same enemy over and over again will tire them out. With only a few quick blows, the Eds finish off the Flare Notes and then got to work on dealing with the rest of the Heartless and Him's legs.

Double D is keeping his eyes focus on not only the Heartless but Him as he needs to see if there is any change to the demon's health if they attack it. When they did, he notices that there is little to no damage to his health. Why is that? He is not sure, but there has to be a weak spot on him but the real question is where. Where on this body is that... a Mad Bumper tries to sneak up on the Ed, but Ed got to it by shooting the car with a Fire spell.

"Thanks Ed," breathes the smart Ed.

"Hey, what's up with you?" asked Eddy. "You're blanking out in the middle of the battle!"

"I'm sorry Eddy, but I am trying to figure out where could Him's weak spot could be, as that may provide us the chance to deal some damage to Him."

"What makes you say that?" A Shadow makes an attempt to jump onto Eddy but he blocks it with his shield.

"You know how Large Bodies have a weak spot on their backs."

"Yeah?"

"Well, if there is a spot where we can strike to deal damage, then we can turn the tables for this battle and we can deliver a devastating final blow!"

"Double D, you're a genius! But..." Eddy's sentence trails off as he tries to figure out what to say next.

"We need to go up," said Ed, pointing straight up at Him's large claws.

The other Eds look up to see what Ed is trying to say. "You're saying that his weak spot is his hands?" Eddy questioned, baffled by the idea. "That's pretty stupid for a weak spot."

"Actually hands are good weak spots considering that crippling them will make them useless in battle," the smart Ed explained. "Since Him is a giant, if he has to rely on his feet to defend himself, he can easily dodge that since that takes some time for him to move them from our perspective."

"And there's a reason why you're so smart," said Ed. "I wish I have your brain."

"And I am afraid of what kind of mischief you can cause with my brain."

"Still, how are we going to get up there?" said Eddy. "In case you don't know, we don't have our ship, we can't fly up there like the girls, and I'm not going to ruin my hair by making it spin."

"We can use Double D and his balloon hat!" Ed stated excitedly.

"Oh no Ed, I am not going to have your lips on mine so that you can blow hot air into my head to inflate my hat like a balloon," Double D protested. "There's no way that you are going to make me go through that episode again. I had to go through several tubes of toothpaste after that moment."

"But there has to be some..."

With yet another crash coming from behind, the Eds flinch in fear of getting hit by the girls. As the dust clears, they can hear the girls groaning in pain before rushing over to help them out. After getting them out of the new crater, Double D takes out the bottles of Hi-Potion and gives them to each girl, using every last drop to heal them up. The green liquid quickly heals the girls back up and they are back on their feet to realize where they are.

"On second thought... girls, we'll take up on your offer," said Eddy.

"What offer?" asked Buttercup.

"You know about us teaming up to combine our moves with yours to take down Him."

"What about it?"

"Well, I just figured out that if we can take down Him's weak spots, he'll be vulnerable to any attack we throw at him," explained Double D, "thus giving us the winning edge in this battle."

"So what do you boys have in mind?" asked Blossom. "For what I am thinking, we can split up into three groups, one of us and one of you, and we can go after these weak spots and defeat Him once and for all."

"That sounds like a plan to me!" Double D stated excitedly.

"Then you are coming with me," the redhead said, grabbing onto the smart Ed's arm to drag him up into the sky.

"And I like you Ed," said Bubbles. "Want to tag up with me?"

Ed returns a nod and the blonde lets out a giggle as she tugs on the tall Ed's arm to fly him up with the first duo. What remains of the Eds and the Powerpuff Girls are Eddy and Buttercup, who are eyeing the flying duos before shifting to each other.

"Nuh-uh, no way am I teaming up with you!" shouted both children. "Why should I be with you? Stop mimicking me!"

"All right, if we want to do this the right way, we need to suck it up and just get this over with," Buttercup sighs, pinching her face.

"I can't agree with you any more," Eddy replied, covering his eyes as he lets out a sigh as well.

The two of them nod to each other and Buttercup lifts up Eddy by placing both of her arms under Eddy's armpits. The duo is flying towards Him's stomach, where as Blossom and Double D are heading for Him's right claw and Bubbles and Ed are heading for Him's left claw. Once they have their targets in sight, the Eds got their weapons ready as the girls break away to begin their attack.

"Now what are you going to do?" the demon asked.

"All right girls, let's administrate attack formation Double Trinity!" stated Blossom.

"Right!" is everybody's response as Him readies itself for whatever attack the six are planning.

Blossom is the first to move as she releases Double D from her grip and performs an elongated backflip to head underneath Him's claw. As the demon's attention is focus on the fallen Ed, the said Ed begins to read the movement of the claw as he prepares his Keyblade to attack. With the claw open for attack, Double D takes the swing and delivers a powerful batting blow to knock the claw straight down on top of Blossom, only for the girl to knock the hand with a single blow. The two trade blows as they bounce the claw between each other, all while rendering Him's right arm useless as they near the end of his claw's health, in which they close in on the claw to deliver one final blow.

"Calculative Timing!" shouted both Double D and Blossom as they pound their way through Him's right claw.

On the other side of the demon, Bubbles whisper her plans as to taking down the left side and Ed is nodding to every detail that the girl is saying. Though he has no true clue as to what the girl is saying, all that matters is taking down this side so that Eddy and Buttercup can do some heavy damage to the demon's stomach. With that said, Ed lets out a few Thundara calls to shock the claw and Bubbles drops Ed to allow her to attack. With some powerful blows, she flies away so that she can charge up a spinning drill move as Ed is spinning down towards the claw.

"I am Ed the Sage!" the tall Ed shouted on the top of his lungs. "Fear my hidden lasagna fury!"

"Cuckooland Surprise!" is the call of Bubbles and Ed as they collide with the claw.

Him is stumbling back from taking on damage to both of its claws, all while dealing damage to the city below. The demon is now furious that it is being beaten by four mere children. Well, two children that are completely normal and two that have superpowers no normal little girl should ever have. While it is distracted by its thoughts, Buttercup and Eddy fly towards the stomach of the demon, each with a determining goal of bringing Him down to a crashing defeat.

Buttercup starts to go into a backflip as she loops Eddy around with her. As she continues to spin, the two gain the speed to where their clothing made them appear to be a green and yellow ball. Then the black-haired girl unleashes the small Ed, allowing him to rocket right at the demon's stomach as Eddy fires his shield at Him to cause some pain to that area. As Eddy draws near his shield and got his feet ready to stamp his shield, Buttercup closes in on where she is going to strike and she prepares a fist for a punch.

"Take this, you vile fiend!" shouted Buttercup as she got closer.

"Powerhouse Bruising!" both Buttercup and Eddy yelled in unison.

They both deliver their blows in unison, causing Him to recoil in pain as the two send tremendous amount of body-numbing pain throughout the demon's body. Him stumbles back, trying to recover from the three hit blow, but the demon is losing energy after that attack. Even in this form Him has taken some damage when it was on the ground fighting the girls, but it never expected to have the girls team up with three unknown boys with extraordinary powers.

The demon lets out a roar and tries to reach for anyone in the air, but the Powerpuff Girls grab onto the Eds before they can fall to their dooms. In three streaks of light, the girls sail away from Him while toting the Eds in hand, all to get some distance between them and the demon so that they can strategize out a plan to defeat Him once and for all. After some talking and some shouting, the girls pull off a 180 turn to face Him once again, and they got themselves evenly space for whatever they are going to do next.

"All right, this will be the final blow, so we better give it everything we got!" stated Blossom. "Get yourselves ready girls!"

Both Buttercup and Bubbles tighten their grips on the Ed they are holding on to as they prepare to spin. They slowly rotate all around before gaining speed and light consuming them to form a red, green, blue and yellow ball of spinning energy. Him slowly got up from its fall to notice the attack that is approaching it, only to notice a Trinity spell formation on the circle of the attack as the girls and Ed quickly approach the demon.

"Omega Trinity Formation!" shouted all six of them.

The attack hits Him at full force, colliding in the face as Him struggles to defend itself from the attack's force. However, with all the combine powers of the girls and the Eds, the damage is too strong and Him is sent crashing down to the streets below. The demon begins its descent to the ground, taking down chunks of the buildings that surround the area where Him is crashing down. A large cloud of dust billows up into the air, signaling that the demon is done and the girls drop the Eds down on of a roof that Him did not destroy.

Once the smoke clears, the six look down upon the crash site to see several hearts floating up into the heavens, which means that the Heartless that were apart of Him were crushed from the fall, and they can see a large heart floating up as well. There in the very middle of the epicenter is the body of the fallen demon, lying there perfectly still after taking substantial amount from the Omega Trinity Formation. Moaning in defeat, Him tries to move an arm but could not lift it as its movement is stiffened by the pain, so it remains still until it can feel no pain whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the six are celebrating over the latest victory...

OOO

"Well, that's another exciting adventure," said Blossom.

"It sure was," replied Double D. "I don't believe that we ever have that much fun before."

"But what about the other worlds we've been to?" asked Eddy.

"Other worlds?" Bubbles asked curiously.

The greedy Ed realizes his mistake upon saying that and he smacks himself in the head. Ed also does the favor of bonking Eddy on the head with his staff, adding more pain to the small Ed's head.

"Still, it wouldn't match what we experienced today and it's a pleasure meeting you girls," said Double D.

"And it's a pleasure meeting you," said Blossom.

"Hey boys, when are we leaving?" Lee shouted from the ship.

"We'll be leaving shortly!" barked the short Ed. "We need to take care of some business first!"

"What kind of business?" May asked.

"We need to find the keyhole to this world and seal that," said Double D, only not answering to the blonde's question.

"And I need to get my hat back from the professor guy," Ed said, pointing to his empty head.

"So let's head inside, shall we?" the smart Ed said, with all of them heading inside of the Powerpuff Girls' home.

Double D can now feel the sensation of the keyhole nearby as he walks around in the house, going down the hallways before coming to the door that is giving off the strongest vibes. The Ed opens the door and he begins to walk down the stairs, noticing the lab that is before him, and he can feel the keyhole's presence strong here. Once setting his foot on the final step, he looks over to a beaker that is on a counter, noting the black liquid that is inside of this beaker.

At this moment, light begin to collect onto the beaker to take shape of the keyhole. Double D knows that this is his last chance to get this keyhole seal as he and the others do not want to be here again to fight whatever this world has in store. Taking out his Keyblade, the Ed aims at the hole and shoots out a beam of light to enter into the world's heart and seal it shut for now. With a click, the keyhole disappears from the beaker and the smart Ed breathes a sigh of relief now knowing that they finally taken care of this world once and for all.

Double D makes his way out of the lab, only to notice the other Eds and the girls waiting for him outside. The Ed nods to his friends, telling them that the world's heart is finally seal and Eddy lets out a joyful cry. As the boys are celebrating over their latest accomplishment, Professor Utonium storms down the hallway and places the hat Normadomus back into Ed's hands.

"I came across... I came across..." panted the professor.

"You came across what Professor?" asked Blossom.

"This has to be important," said Buttercup.

"I came across an important find in how this hat came to be," the professor said, getting in a good breath of fresh air.

"Well, spill it!" snapped Eddy.

"As you recall, I said I was transformed into this form by an unknown source," said Normadomus.

"Well, it appears that it is some curse spell that was inflicted by a powerful dark lord," said Utonium. "The thing is that this seal is lined with magic that either science or any kind of magic can break."

"But... a professor like you shouldn't believe in magic, correct?" asked Double D.

"That's true, but there's nothing I have ever seen that was compare to this. It is strikes a fancy in me and I want to know more about it, especially when helping the girls out with the Heartless."

"That's nice Professor," said Blossom, "but we got it cover when we fight the Heartless."

"But is there anything that can help me turn back to normal?" asked the hat.

"There is one thing, and from what I am getting, you need to find the source of this spell and try to convince that person into undoing the seal. But there is one thing that concerns me..."

"What?" everybody asked at once.

"When I was looking at this seal, I caught a glimpse of a dark man with a glowing outline. But this was different from what I see on the news. This man was no one I have ever seen before, with his appearance completely surrounded by the shadows and a purple outline. He had this wide, wicked smile on his face, as if he is smiling about how the hat is suffering."

"Shadows... outline... wouldn't that person be Father?" asked Blossom.

"No, he had a purple outline, not red," replied Utonium.

"But then, who is this..."

"Hey, where's Bubbles?"

As Double D was trying to finish his sentence, Buttercup's statement got everyone's attention right away and they all notice one little blonde missing from the group. The girls and the Eds move about the room in search of the missing Bubbles, only to find no traces of the girl. They turn their attention to the front door, which is swinging wide open, and everyone runs outside to see if they can find Bubbles outside anywhere.

Sadly, the little girl is missing.

"Where did she go?" asked Buttercup, sounding worry.

"This isn't like Bubbles," said Blossom. "Since when can she run off without telling us?"

"I don't know about this, but my gut is telling me something is up," said Eddy. "We better get moving."

"Yes, as we need to drop the others off at Traverse Town and continue with our search for the others," said Double D. "If we come across Bubbles, we'll inform you girls on the information."

The remaining Powerpuff Girls return a nod, assuring that the Eds will keep their word about finding their sister and bringing her back safely. With that, the Eds board their ship and got themselves ready for liftoff, now toting the two Kanker sisters they acquired back in town. The doors close and the engine roars to life, and the _Midnight Hummer_ is back off of the ground to take to the skies and head back to Traverse Town.

In the distance, Blitzer is standing on the rooftop, toting a struggling Bubbles on his back, and he lets a wolf smile grow. "Don't worry my dear," he said. "Once I ship you off to Father, I will take care of the Ed boys and acquire their Keyblade so that our mission will be closer to completion."

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Distraction_ – a Light-based magic move that has Double D creating a clone of himself or other items to distract an enemy_  
Double Trinity_ – The Eds and the Powerpuff Girls unify and use three separate attacks – _Calculative Timing_, _Powerhouse Bruising_ and _Cuckooland Surprise_ – before combining together to form _Omega Trinity Formation_.

OOO

Oh boy, what's going on here? It seems like we got ourselves a bit of a plot twist there.

So, I have Blitzer taking Bubbles away, without _anyone knowing_! Now is this cruel of me, or do I have a bigger intention? I think it'll be the latter, as you can probably figure it out that this _is Kingdom Hearts_ we are talking about here. Of course I am following the basis, _not_ the formula of the original game. I do want to make things different in telling this story, but I do want to be true to the original source, even if I am tearing it up. But like I said, I do want to keep the basis in tact and try to keep it that way from Point A to Point B.

And this is similar to when you went back to the worlds for a second time and learning a bit, plus training, before getting to Hollow Bastion and then the End of the World. I think that this chapter was necessary since that I, when I was writing this, wrote Chapter Five before anything else and I decide not to add the keyhole back in Chapter Four for when I decide to write this chapter to have the Eds go back here and seal it up. Oh, and praise for me to add the devil himself... Him. Man that sounds weird.

Meh, I don't care. All I care about is making a good story. At least you people are happy and that's all I care about.

And allow me to note: the Keyblade does have transformation powers similar to that of _Birth by Sleep_, only I decided to make the Keyblade (limitedly) change into a cycle instead of a ship. And what I mean by limitedly... it isn't going to happen often.

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next will bring the end of the act and the first major boss battle of this story.


	8. Act I, Ch 08: vs Blitzer

So I welcome you to the final chapter of this act, where we will begin the first of four act-ending boss battles. For which, I will assign a certain character to fight the Eds and hopefully that they can win each fight. And this will test their skills they had learned so far in this story, and I get to show-off the villain.

For this act... I want to say that this is my more less-talked about character. And I want to go on the record to say... the Eds are going to have a hard time dealing with this guy. Enjoy!

Legal Stuff:** I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Eight – The Ed That Cried Blitz

OOO

"I say, you Ed boys got yourself a fancy spaceship."

"Well Lee, this isn't exactly ours," answered Double D. "We are currently borrowing this from someone of the world we are heading to so that we can travel around the universe to find the other cul-de-sac children."

"Still, you guys got a spaceship!" May stated. "You can fly all over the place with this thing!"

The Eds are back in space, now toting the new passengers the Kanker sisters. With only two of them, as their third sister Marie is missing in action for the time being, and Rolf in tow, the boys are heading back for Traverse Town to drop the load off. They figure that if they keep everyone on the ship, they are going to get bored on the ship and venture out into the worlds the Eds visit, which will cause some problems. So, the main plan is to carry two or three children, depending on who they meet, and head back to Traverse Town to drop them off and restock on items.

And speaking of restocking items, the Eds have plans to order some items from Giovanni's General Store for them to use in battle. They set a list for some Potions, Ethers and some normal food for when the boys get hungry, as they do not want to stop by every restaurant or store to find that they do not provide the food the boys are looking for. Plus, they do not want to eat something that will turn on their taste buds and make them sick to their stomachs.

"So once we get to Traverse Town, we're heading to the General Store to collect up on some supplies and then it's straight to TOM's home," the smart Ed said, flipping some switches to get the thrusters to boost them further along.

"OK, but what exactly are we going to do there?" the redhead Kanker asked. "It isn't like we have anything constructive to do."

"Constructive?" parroted Eddy in an annoyed voice. "Can you Kankers name one thing that was even close to constructive?"

"Still, we won't be able to tease and torture you three," said May, "though it's no fun without Marie around."

"Yeah. I still miss her for all she is," replied Lee. "She's family to us, and..."

"Excuse Rolf, but Rolf was just wondering about what to do with the lack of meat in this strange object of wonders?" the foreigner asked, strolling into the cockpit with Ed from behind.

"Ed? Did you eat all of the meat?" asked Double D.

"It wasn't me! Honest and for truly!" the tall Ed whines, defending his side as the hat sitting on his head stares at the others.

"I'll attempt that the boy is telling the truth," he said. "I haven't seen him lay a finger on the refrigerator, so there's no way that the boy could have taken the food."

"But that wouldn't explain how the food went missing," said Eddy. "We need food to survive out here and we can't just wander from one end to the other without food!"

"Eddy does strike up a good point," the smart Ed pointed out. "It is a good reason I added food to our list of supplies to get once we are back in Traverse Town."

"So how much longer will it be, captain?"

"By my calculations... about ten minutes."

"And boy, did we have a fun time during those ten minutes," Eddy groans, recalling the travel between their first visit to Townsville and Washington, D.C.

"But this time will be different as we have others to join in our little excursion back to Traverse Town."

"But you do realize that we have twin psychos that want to use us, a tall boy with no sense about our culture, and a lump on a log."

"A lump that's lovable," Ed replied.

"At least he's telling the truth about that," May said seductively as she walks up to the tall Ed

"By the way, Rolf needs to ask you Ed boys about why there was no one on this strange doohickey when Rolf needed you the most?"

"What are you talking about Rolf?" asked Double D. "We were on the ship. We made sure of it."

"Uh, I think I may know the reason behind that," Normadomus said weakly.

"You do?" asked Eddy. "Well spill it then! Did that Distraction thing work or not on Rolfy here?"

"Well... the Distraction spell is only good for a minute," the hat answered sheepishly, "so no matter what level of Light spell you're using..."

"The Break has a limit," finished Double D, getting why they are called Limit Breaks. "But still, we were in Townsville for about an hour or so, so that means..."

"Rolf has got to be either oblivious or really stupid," Eddy added, knowing the tall foreigner.

"Rolf will have you know that Rolf is not part of the oblivion, as Rolf is clearly much alive to be here," Rolf replied.

"Rolf, Eddy said 'oblivious,' not 'oblivion,'" the smart Ed corrected. "They are two separate words with two different meanings, and though they do share some common letters, they have no true connection with each other."

"But they sound kinda the same, right?" asked Lee.

Double D lets out a sigh and he spins around in his chair so that he get his hands back on the controls and pilot the ship to Traverse Town. He knows that the rest of the children are not that well educated like he is and dealing with this problem will only thicken the solution, making it impossible to teach them anything. As he

"_Come in _Midnight Hummer_. This is Dexter with an important message for you_."

"Yes Dexter, what is it?"

"_I have come across some readings coming from a different section of the universe of your friends and well, in order for you to get to them; you need a special Gummi block that will allow you to travel beyond these worlds_."

"A special Gummi block?" echoed Eddy. "Can't you install it through here?"

"_I wish I could, but I need to physically install it with my hands, not inputting it through wireless waves_," the boy genius answered. "_At least you are heading back to Traverse Town, which is a good thing. As soon as you land, I'll get to work on it right away and should have it running in no time_."

"All right, thanks for the head's up," Double D responded. "We should be in Traverse Town in no time, so there's no need to rush..."

The _Midnight Hummer_ rocks violently as everyone that is standing collapses to the floor and the two Eds at the controls hit their stomachs on the edge of the dashboard. Warning sirens are going off and Double D looks over at the radar to notice a lone enemy ship in the area, and he checks behind him to notice a slight outline of another Gummi ship out in space. From what he is seeing, this is the same Gummi ship that made them crash on Nowhere and now the pilot is getting in a second round to finish the boys off.

"Oh come on, this guy again!" the small Ed whines. "All right, this guy is going to pay for what he did to us!"

"Ed must shoot down this invisible intruder!" the tall Ed shouted, climbing up into the gravity turret chamber so that he can man that.

"Mind explaining what the heck is going on?" shouted Lee, clinging onto Eddy's open seat as she got herself down in it.

"Well we came into contact with this mysterious pilot and he apparently knows of us, so in his mind he wants to get rid of us," the smart Ed quickly answered, watching the back for incoming fire. He tilts on the controls to send the ship into a barrel roll and the others cling on as the ship is sent spiraling. "We don't have the slightest clue as to who this person is or why he is after us, but all we know is that this person is destructive and we got to escape out of here as fast as possible."

Eddy fires off a few rounds of the fire turrets and Ed with a couple shots of the gravity cannon, but all the shots miss due to the enemy ship being nearly invisible and highly maneuverable. Once the Eds are done shooting, the Gummi ship returns fire on the Eds and Double D did his best at outmaneuvering the rounds, only to achieve better results from their first battle with this mysterious enemy. Eddy lines up his shot, only for him to notice the Gummi ship speeding up and sailing right over their ship.

"Ed, shoot it down!" ordered the greedy Ed.

The tall Ed follows his commands and fires off two rounds at the enemy ship, only for those to miss completely. The black Gummi ship backs off and hovers right over the Midnight Hummer, only to allow the pilot to drop something from his ship and onto the Eds'. With a salute, the mysterious pilot speeds off across space and allowing his special gift to land on top of the Gummi ship, which cause the ship to rock violently from its immense weight.

"What just hit us?" asked Lee.

Ed spins his turret around to find the source of the blow, only to aim the barrel at a blue wolf-like being on the top of the ship. "It's a doggy!" shouted the tall Ed.

"Dog? But that's impossi..." Double D realizes what he is saying and he grabs the intercom in a hurry. "Ed! You better get out of there! That's no ordinary dog! It's a trap!"

"It's too late!" shouted the voice of Blitzer, as all three Eds begin to glow a bright blue light and quickly vanish into thin air.

The Kanker sisters and Rolf look around the cockpit in hopes of finding the smart Ed, and they check the turrets to see if the greedy and tall Eds are there, only to find emptiness in both turrets. "Did something happen to our boyfriends?" asked May.

"What in the name of Nana just happen?" asked Rolf.

OOO

Rocks are rising up from the terrible condition that is the soil, which has seen better days. The sky is barren of clouds, with only a sickly yellow covering the atmosphere of a warming blue. The air is not the safest among the other worlds, but it is breathable to those who are brave enough to venture on this strange, twisted and sad world. There are absolutely no signs of life on this world, which leaves to ask this question:

What purpose does this world have? Or a more appropriate one: what is this world?

Three balls of glowing light shimmer over some smooth rocks and the Eds materialize from these balls to land on the rocks and skid down. All three come to a stop as soon as they notice the ground, and they climb back up to take a look at their surroundings. As far as their eyes can see, they can see all but the same thing: rocks and more rocks.

"OK, how did we wound up here?" whines Eddy.

"That's a good question. Allow me to answer that."

The Eds got themselves arm as they notice the form of Blitzer taking shape on a nearby rock. From what they are seeing, this is their first time encountering the wolf hybrid that makes up this Unversed, and they can clearly notice his blue fur, white razor thorns running on its back, and the two red eyes staring back at them.

"You see, I am the one that sent you to this world," the wolf answered. "This world you are standing on is not that quite well known as it is a world that people forgot all some time ago."

"A world forgotten long ago?" mutters Double D.

"This world has no specific name, as no one is sure what to call it due to it being non-existing to everyone," Blitzer said, continuing on with his tale, "but to those who have heard it, it is known as this... the Land that Was Forgotten."

Eddy lets out a flat, irritated groan. "Seriously? What kind of name is that?" he moans. "Ed here can come with a better name than that!"

"And I have a list to prove it," said Ed, grabbing a long list of planet names he acquired from reading all of the comic books and watching all of the movies he enjoys so much.

"Boy, you have some obsession," whistles Normadomus.

"Still, for all of those who land on this world are cursed to walk this land 'til Death enters and sends the people deep into the ground," continues Blitzer.

"So we are stuck here until we die?" shouted Double D in shock.

"Well, you are but I can teleport myself out of here. But why should I leave when there's a key component Father needs in order to succeed in his plan."

The Eds wonder about this for the moment, only for the answer to hit them. They raise their weapons up in defense and the Unversed lets out a laugh. "And that's just what I suspect. I knew that you boys are going to be putting up a fight. It's no fun to take the Keyblade out of your hands if you are not willing to fight for it."

"You won't be getting the Keyblade from my hands," Double D stated forcefully, getting himself ready to strike.

"And this is where you make your first mistake... you're facing off against a strong Unversed, stronger than my fallen brother and sisters!" the wolf snarled. "If you want to have a chance of living, you better be ready to risk that Keyblade of yours!"

"Bad doggy!" shouted Ed, firing off a Fire spell.

The fireball rockets from Ed's staff and right at the Unversed, and the wolf only puts a strange smirk on his face as the fireball draws near. As the fire draws near, Blitzer opens his jaw and allows the flames to enter his mouth, only for him to snap his jaw shut and put out the flames. There are no signs of smoke coming out of the wolf's mouth and he only flashes a wolf smile as everyone is baffled by the outcome.

"He just... he just..." stuttered Double D, lost on words.

"You see, I am no ordinary being. I am nothing like you've faced before," Blitzer snickered. "Oh no! In fact, I am much stronger than any Heartless combine!"

"How about you put your money where your mouth is!" shouted Eddy, tossing his shield at the wolf.

The Unversed did not move at all once again, waiting as the shield approaches him. Once it is near him, he opens his jaw once again and snaps shut on the shield, preventing the blade from cutting him. The wolf tugs on the shield, in which cause Eddy to fling forward, and the thorns on Blitzer's back whir to life like a chainsaw blade. The small Ed looks in fear of the spinning thorns and he breaks the shield away from Blitzer's grip, as the shield lands on Eddy's feet and he skates across the thorns to land on the other side safely.

Once on a stable surface, Eddy tries to use his shield again at beating Blitzer, but the wolf did not bother to turn around to face Eddy. Instead, the shield is batted away by the Unversed's tail, causing a shock reaction to the other's faces. The small Ed retrieves his shield and he looks in confusion as to how something like Blitzer can stop his attack like that.

"Don't you see? I am much stronger than anything you faced before!" the wolf howled. "I am not sure on what you fought against, but they're nothing compared to me."

"Oh just shut up already!" shouted Eddy. "We get the picture already!"

The wolf lets out a smirk. "Really? Tell me, how many Unversed have you fought? None, correct?"

The smart Ed tracks the numbers in his head, remembering the number of times the boys have fought against these beings. "He's right," he answered. "We haven't fought any Unversed before."

"Does it matter?" asked Eddy.

"It does, considering that if you faced off against a certain type of enemy, you will know how to defeat it," Double D answered. "We know how to deal with the Heartless and we have dealt with a Nobody with Zip-fly..."

"Zip-fly?" echoed Blitzer, letting out a hiss. "You obviously don't know what kind of Nobody he is. And you want to hear me out on this... you _really_ don't want to know."

"And what makes you say that?" questioned Eddy."

"Well you are talking to someone who has grown up with him from the beginning of his life as a..."

"Thundara!"

A streak of lightning shoots out from Ed's staff and over to the Unversed, and everyone around the blast radius got out of the way as the spell hits the ground Blitzer once stood. As the electricity clears, Blitzer emerges and takes a strike at Double D but the Ed retaliates by calling his Keyblade and placing the shaft inside of the wolf's bite. Blitzer chomps on the metal with enough force to snap the metal in half, but with the Keyblade obtaining a stronger metal to prevent that

The Unversed backs off as Double D charges forward with the Keyblade down to his side. He brings it up and jumps up in hopes of doing a downward swing, but Blitzer got his thorns spinning to allow them to cut the smart Ed once he lands. Double D switches tactics in mid-fall to a Fire spell, unleashing a fire ring around the wolf and slightly burning him as the Ed lands on a rock. He notices through the smoke that Blitzer survived the blow and the wolf charges at Double D with his jaw wide open.

Eddy intervenes by raising Jumbo Jawbreaker in time to block the wolf from chomping down on the medium Ed and knocking Blitzer away with a good push. Blitzer recoils from this blow by placing all four on a rock and pushing off, launching himself and sending himself into a spiral, and Eddy takes his shield to block the incoming blow. The full force of Blitzer collides with the shield and Eddy does his best at preventing the Unversed from progressing any further.

"A little help here Sock-head!" grunted Eddy as he starts to slowly go back from the force.

The smart Ed nods to this and he got around the small Ed, with the Keyblade in hand, and he tries to sneak a swipe at Blitzer. However, the spinning wolf clearly sees Double D coming at him and he increase the size of the thorns to make the Ed back away. The rotating Unversed comes to a stop and tries to bite Eddy, but Ed fires a fireball in time to allow Blitzer to eat only the flames.

The Eds regroup, getting themselves some distance as Blitzer takes the moment to recover from the latest attack. As things settle down, Ed tries to run in, but Blitzer charges straight at the tall Ed with his mouth open wide and teeth buzzing like a chainsaw. The other Eds watch in horror as their friend is diving into a trap, with the tall one with a large grin on his face and his hat panicking about the rotary teeth inside of the Unversed's mouth.

"Ed!" shouted both Double D and Eddy.

The greedy Ed realizes that he still has his normal yo-yo on him so he takes the toy out and swings it over to Ed. The yo-yo wraps around the boy's stomach, getting a tight grip on him as Eddy tugs on the string to pull Ed back. Blitzer bites down hard, only to miss by inches as the small Ed pulls extremely hard to get the much heavier Ed back over to them, all allowing the boy to land on top of them.

"Ed, what you are thinking?" Eddy yelled. "Are you trying to get yourself eaten alive by a wolf?"

"Oh, and forget about the hat that can heal you boys up here!" stated Normadomus. "Honestly, you boys are forgetting that I am part of this team."

"But aren't you capable of using your Blizzard spell on him, can you?" asked Double D.

"I could, but there's a few that I hadn't tried in a while," the hat said, shooting a grin at Blitzer.

The wolf raises an eyebrow as Normadomus unhinges his mouth wider to start his magic spell. A purple light starts to illuminate inside of Ed's hat, and there is a dark ring forming around Blitzer. He starts to panic about what to do, as he step he takes the ring moves with him, and the hat gives the Unversed a wink before shouting the name of the spell.

"Gravitaga!"

The ring forms a dome over Blitzer and he can feel the gravity of the dome crashing down on him, forcing him to the ground and pinning him there. The Eds cheer on as Normadomus keeps a good hold on his spell, applying more to keep Blitzer down. The hat uses his tip to point at the wolf, signaling the others to go and strike, and they did not waste the opportunity to do so.

The hat releases the spell so that Ed can use his Thundara and Fire spells without any restriction or interference. Double D starts off by using a Fire spell, casting a ring around Blitzer before burning him, and Eddy tosses his shield at the wolf to add in more damage. Ed casts a Thundara, striking at his target this time and sending pain throughout the wolf. Then Double D got up and delivers a good blow right in the face to send Blitzer flying across the field of rocks and land on a large boulder.

"Yes, now that's what I am talking about!" shouted Normadomus excitedly.

"I guess that we won this through the power of teamwork, eh gentlemen?" asked Double D with a smile on his as he slings the Keyblade onto his shoulder.

The boys can hear the sound of laughter coming from where Blitzer is and they can see that the wolf is laughing. He got out from the rock without a scratch, and the Eds can see that his body has change forms. Instead of having a more wolf-like appearance, the body is much sleeker and looks rough to the touch. The fur is missing, with the exception of the mane and the tail, leaving only a shiny look to his body. And the head changes form to a shark appearance, giving the wolf the resemblance of a shark with legs.

"Cool, that reminds me of _When the Weresharks Strike Back: the Sequel_," said Ed, recalling one of the comic books he read.

"Ed, do you really honestly believe that one of your horror stories is going to help us in this fight?" asked Double D.

"Yes! In it, the weresharks are weak against ice and that they can run faster than a..."

"Ice? Ice! Boy, you are a genius!" stated the hat. "If you can figure that out from one of your stories, then we have this fight ours!"

Normadomus opens up so that he can cast his Blizzard spell, only to notice that Blitzer is just standing there. Neither the less, Normadomus casts forth a Blizzaga, sending a chilling blast of icy air down on Blitzer for a good few seconds before canceling the attack. Once the hat seals his mouth, everyone takes notice that the ice attack did not do anything to the wolf-shark.

"Oh come on, is he immune to all of our attacks?" stated Eddy angrily.

"I was going to call you out on that sentence, but you got your wording right on that," said Double D.

"If you want to know, I can feel your attacks," answered Blitzer. "However, you were only peeling back a layer of protection that I use to keep my true form from getting damaged."

"So all we need to do is keep on flailing on you until we can defeat this form, and possibly others, until we can get to your true form to defeat you?" the smart Ed asked, repeating everything they heard to make sure they got the right information.

"Pretty much."

The boys and the hat let out a long sigh. They know that they are going to keep this fight going on until one side falls in defeat, and that is either through stripping Blitzer down until they reach the core or the Eds fall down from exhaustion. Still, one side is going to go down and the boys are hoping that they are not the ones that are going to be down for the count.

The new Blitzer takes this opportunity to try out his new body by running towards the Eds, but instead the wolf-shark disappears upon taking his first few steps. The boys got their guards up, waiting for the moment to strike the Eds. An after-image appears and Double D takes a swing, but he cuts clean through before hearing Eddy yelping in pain from the real Blitzer.

"He is fast," muttered Double D.

"And it's thanks to you for it," replied Blitzer. "With this sleeker body of mine, I can run faster than ever before!"

"Then take this, shark creature of the Nether-realm!" shouted Ed, aiming Nerd's Tools at the Unversed.

The tall Ed unleashes a Fire spell point blank in Blitzer's face, knocking the wolf-shark back a few feet before unleashing a powerful Thundara attack. The jolt is sent throughout Blitzer, pinning him to the spot as he shakes with shock, as static electricity jumps all over the Unversed's body. The others watch in amusement, realizing now they have found their weakness thanks to Blitzer's new form, and Ed takes this moment to step forward with a stern look on his face.

"I am Ed the Sage!" the tall Ed stated proudly, holding out his staff out wide and a fist on his chest.

Normadomus takes notice of the title and raises an eyebrow. "Sage? Since when is there ever a Red Sage?" the hat asked. "I know of Red Mages, but never a Red Sage."

"Ed's a Red Mage?" questioned Double D. "Ed doesn't appear to be the type to even do what you do."

"Well if you consider me part of Ed, then that counts only as a whole."

"That explains a lot," the smart Ed said, getting Joker's Wild up to block a strike from Blitzer's razor teeth.

The greedy Ed lets out a groan in agony, feeling some pain from the blow he took as he got himself back up onto his feet. Normadomus turns around to use a Cure on the boy, healing him back to normal, and Eddy got a running start at the person who caused the mark to him. With the shield in his grasp, he rams it into Blitzer, only to get into a stand-off of power and the ground beneath the two starts to crack from the pressure.

Blitzer lets out a growl and Eddy returns his own, with both pushing against each other with the hopes of winning this stand-off. The wolf-shark flashes a smirk and backs away from the stalemate, only to open his mouth and allow his teeth to spin around. The small Ed jumps back and he raises his shield to defend himself from the blow, but Blitzer disappears once again to leave Eddy spinning around to make sure to cover himself.

The other Eds check around to make sure that they can see the wolf-shark anywhere, only to notice the after-image of the Unversed. Ed fires off a few Fire spells, hitting each one of the after-images, which makes Double D to recognize a pattern. He can hear the sound of buzzing and he got his weapon up to block the sawing blades of Blitzer's teeth from cutting him. The two struggles for a bit before Ed whacks the wolf-shark on the head with his staff, causing Blitzer to back away and Double D to deliver a blow to the lower jaw with Joker's Wild's teeth.

"Nice hit, Double D!" Eddy said excitedly.

"But this battle is far from over," said Double D, getting his Keyblade up for another strike.

Blitzer got back onto his feet, jaw slightly out of place from the blow, and he grins a wolf smile as he got the thorns on his back running once again. Eddy takes this moment to run right at Blitzer with the edge of his shield aiming at the wolf-shark's mouth, and all in hopes of jamming it through the mouth and cutting him right in half. Only half of that plan succeeds, with the small Ed ramming the shield inside of Blitzer's mouth, but the Unversed prevents the shield from going any further thanks to his teeth.

Ed notices this as a moment to use another Thundara attack, so he raises his staff up to allow one bolt of electricity to shoot up into the air and strike down. The lightning hits both Eddy and Blitzer, due to the large round metallic object that the lightning is attracted to. Both beings are sent flying, with the small Ed crashing into Double D and Blitzer into a pile of rocks, all with a few bolts of electricity dancing around the impact site.

Ed then grabs his staff and allows a build-up of electricity to gather up on the tip of Nerd's Tools, gaining power as Blitzer rises from his fall. Once on all four, the tall Ed charges forward with enough electricity to cause some tears in the ground, as the others watch in spectacle by the amount of electricity Ed is using. The hat tenses up in fear about the amount Ed is using for this attack, as the boy swings his staff up and then down onto the wolf-shark's head.

The attack lands perfectly, unleashing the large amount of lightning down on the Unversed and creating a nuclear-like explosion. The electricity spreads across the battlefield, clearing away rocks and coating the Eds in a blanket of soot and dirt, as a large mushroom cloud rises up into the air with jolts of electricity shooting out from the aftershock of the attack. Once the move is settled down, the Eds are coughing and they notice that there is no sign of Blitzer around.

Normadomus lets out a soot cloud from his mouth. "Kid, if that wasn't a Thundaga-type Limit Break, I don't want to know what else you are capable of," he coughed.

"So does this mean we won?" asked Ed.

"I don't think so!"

The Eds look in the general where the voice came from, noticing that their enemy is still standing, only this time he is taking on a new appearance and they groan that this battle is still going on.

"Oh you got to be kidding me!" shouted Eddy. "He still won't go down?"

"Well he did say that we need to go through several layers before exposing his final form," answered Double D.

"And I believe that this is his final form," said Normadomus.

"What makes you say that?"

This new form of Blitzer appears much like his original form, except the symbol on his back has broke in half to give him wings and the body is much more flame-like. The jaw is wider, with a few extra rows of teeth waiting behind the first row, and the lower half is back in place thanks to this new form. And the tail improves by gaining a fork-like appearance and the tips looking like tools for jabbing.

"Well... I guess that you can call it his final form," the smart Ed wonders.

"Indeed. This is my final form... the true form of Blitzer the Unversed!" shouted the wolf. "And now that I have unlocked the ability of flight, you will not be able to stop me now."

"You do realize that we have Ed here that can shoot you down with his lightning, fire and ice attacks if he has to," the small Ed said, pointing to Ed.

"Eddy, I don't feel so good," whines the tall Ed, collapsing down onto the ground.

"Not good? Why not?"

"Boy, that last attack used too much of his energy," stated the hat. "You felt that attack! I don't see how you can survive that if you weren't on our side."

"But if Ed here can't do it, then can you?"

"Kid, I am part of this boy," answered Normadomus. "Since we share the same amount of magic, we can use so much to the point where we can't use another spell. So that means is... I can't heal you if you get hit by one of Blitzer's attacks!"

Eddy begins to panic about the current situation. Without Ed, the boys are doom to walk this world with no food, no water, nothing. Since Ed and Normadomus are the only ones who can properly use magic but are out of energy to do so, this leaves only Double D and himself to defeat this wolf beast, but what can Eddy do other than use his shield. Of course there is...

"Double D, you need to hit him with some magic!" shouted Eddy.

"But with what? I know my Fire won't cause any harm, and I don't even know how to properly use my Light spell!"

"Well is there anything you can think of right off the top of your head?"

"I-I-I-I don't know! B-Blizzard?" the smart Ed stammered.

As he said the word, the air around Blitzer begins to chill down and start to form into solid ice. The Eds watch in amazement as ice begins to form, creating a large crystal-like structure right near Blitzer and the wolf backs away as the ice expands. The ice then begins to crack, shattering from the immense pressure growing from inside, until shattering into hundreds of shards. The attack does hit, but it was not the shards that did the damage, rather it was the shockwave that did its blow.

Double D pulls his up his Keyblade, realizing that he can perform a new spell, and with that new spell comes a strategy to winning the battle. He whispers a plan to Eddy and he quickly tells Ed about the details as all of them nod to this plan. Double D got himself ready to use another Blizzard spell, getting a crystal ready to break as he performs a Fire spell right under the ice crystal. Blitzer is wondering what is going on before he begins to figure out that the smart Ed is increasing the pressure inside of the crystal with the fire, and they want to use that pressure to deal heavy damage to the Unversed.

Before the wolf can react, the ice crystal busts open and the shockwave rockets out from the core and straight at Blitzer, allowing all of the energy of the attack to hit him and deal massive damage. As the wolf is flying, Ed steps in and he takes a swing with his staff at the Unversed to bat him over to Eddy. The small Ed prepares his shield to use as a punching device, and he delivers a good blow in Blitzer's stomach to knock the wolf over to where Double D is to finish the wolf off. The smart Ed takes his Keyblade and he cuts Blitzer's Unversed symbol wings right off of his back, and the wolf yelps in pain as the symbol disappears into thin air and the wolf crashes into a pile of rocks.

There is smoke coming from the crash site and the boys cover themselves to keep their airways clear. Once the smoke dies down, the Eds can see that their enemy is finally defeated, as the Unversed is showing no signs of movement whatsoever, so this gives the boys the chance to finally celebrate their latest victory.

"Oh yeah, who's the boss!" shouted Eddy. "We won this fight!"

"Yay, we can go home!" Ed shouted excitedly.

"Yes, but we are not here as of yet," the smart Ed said. "We still need to ask if there is a way off of this world and get out."

The Unversed starts to laugh before bursting out in a hysterical laughter. "Is there a way off this world? Boy, there is no way off this world other than through me!" the wolf stated madly. "I hold the power to get you off this world and since you defeated me, you're stranded here for the rest of your natural lives!"

"No... this isn't possible..." muttered Double D.

"You said that if we defeated you, we'll leave this place!" growled Eddy, his anger rising now.

"Can't you tell when a person is lying? I obviously flat-out lied to you, and here you are whining about it to a dying Unversed."

Eddy grips a fist together and starts to head towards Blitzer in anger, but Ed takes his staff and blocks the greedy Ed from proceeding with his current objective. "No Eddy," the tall Ed said.

"Ed! What are you doing? He has the way to get off of this world, and you're letting him die on us!"

"Heh, that boy is pretty smart for looking so dumb," the wolf grunted. "He does have the idea. If you do beat me senseless, you're only going to be stranded here."

"And what is stopping me?"

"Look, I'll say this," said Blitzer, his body slowly disintegrating. "You will leave this place with my power just this once. However, if you come across Prankster... he won't be as nice to allow you to go back to your ship."

"But why are you helping us?" asked Double D.

"Because of what my master is trying to do," the wolf answered. "He's planning to capture all of the Pure Hearted and find a Keyblade so that he can find the final keyhole in order to achieve ultimate power. However, there is a greater evil behind him and he is lurking in the shadows so that when Father undoes the final lock, he will come in and take this power for himself."

"A greater evil?" echoed Ed.

"There's ultimate power?" wonders Eddy.

"A being stronger than Father?" muttered Double D.

"Believe me on this... this man is not to be messed with. If you manage to defeat Prankster and Zip-fly in that order, he will only get stronger."

"Stronger... as in he will be reborn?" asked Normadomus. "But that's impossible!"

"Oh, it is possible. You just need to defeat the Heartless first and then the Nobody in order to achieve reincarnation. If it's the other way around, then that person is no more."

"Oh the many things we are learning here," said Double D, writing down everything he is hearing on a notepad.

"And I will say this as well. If you ever come across our former master... you better remember how you defeated me!"

With that last line, the wolf vanishes into thin air, all without leaving any signs of a heart or anything. There is hardly any trace left of the being, with only some dust clouds sweeping back and forth as Blitzer disappears. Once there is nothing, the Eds are left standing there, wondering why the Unversed said that and how are they going to get back to their ship.

"Can someone tell me who he was talking about?" asked Eddy.

"Former master?" echoed Double D. "Was he talking about Father?"

"No. Father is his current master," said Normadomus. "There is a tale about the upbringing of the three beings of each side and their leader. I heard about it long ago and can only recall certain details about it."

"Well, can you explain those details you know of?" the smart Ed asked politely.

The hat opens his mouth to begin his explanation but before the words can form, the three Eds are glowing a bright blue. The boys look worry at first by the sudden glowing, but they realize that they are heading back to whence they came from, as they are going back to the Gummi ship and to safety. With a nod to each other, they give their respects to the wolf that was their enemy in their fight but was generous enough to send them back to their normal dimension. The bright light illuminates brighter, consuming all three boys to become one large orb of light, and the globe dims to show no trace of the Eds being here on this world.

All that remains is a large clear opening to where a battle was once fought...

OOO

The Kankers are pacing back and forth in a frenzy about what to do about their missing boyfriends and Rolf is still looking around for the others in hopes of finding them on the ship. As they are walking about, three glowing spheres appear in the cockpit and the Eds appear once again, with Eddy and Double D sitting at the controls and Ed with May. The blonde Kanker realizes this and starts to squeeze the air out of the tall Ed, as the others rush up to the other Eds.

"What just happened?" asked Rolf. "Rolf saw three balls of light and you Eds boys disappeared, and now here you are back where you started out."

"I honestly have no idea on how we got back here," answered Double D, "but the best I can say is that we took care of whatever it was that attacked us earlier and we will not have to worry about it again."

"That is good to hear," said Lee. "At least little Eddy here is safe."

"Hey, who are you calling little?" snapped the greedy Ed, getting himself into fighting position.

"Chill out shrimp, you've been gone for a minute so there's no need to go AWOL on us," the redhead replied.

"A minute?" snapped Double D this time. "We were gone for a minute? It was clearly much longer than that!"

"I think you guys got bonk on the head hard enough to not realize the time," said May, releasing her grip on Ed to allow the boy to breathe.

"Either that, or the dimension we were in had a different pacing of time to where it appears to be faster there and slower here," the smart Ed explained.

"Still, we are out of there and we don't have to worry about that wolf thing again," said Eddy.

"But Eddy, we didn't see Bubbles with him..."

"So? She might be somewhere else."

"Like where Marie is?" asked Lee.

"It's possible, or she just may be on another world," said Double D. "We won't know for certain until we can explore other worlds and the only way to do that is we need that Gummi block Dexter is talking about."

"Then let us not wait any more!" stated Ed excitedly. "Full speed that away!"

"Ed, wrong direction," the smart Ed said jokily, pointing out that Ed is pointing in the opposite direction. "I can handle where we are going, thank you."

With a tight grip on the controls, Double D got the ship up to speed and got them going back towards Traverse Town, all in to dropping the children off, gaining some supplies and a new block that will help them explore this universe. With the thrusters pumping out three-fourths of maximum energy, the _Midnight Hummer_ streaks across the darkness of space with a glowing orange tail trailing from behind.

OOO

Out somewhere in the vastness of space, the Gummi ship that has been stalking the Eds approaches a large spaceship, going up to the docking station to get inside of the ship. Once grounded, the door to the ship opens up, revealing the pilot to be the masked teen Mask and he walks around his ship to head for the door. The only door to the docking station opens up and the Heartless Prankster floats in with a smile on his face.

"Ah Mask, I'm so glad to see you again," the ghost said. "So how goes the latest mission? Did you get rid of Blitzer?"

"I didn't. The Eds did," the teen replied. "I dropped Blitzer off with them in hopes of him finishing them, but apparently they delivered the final blow for me."

"Well that is a bummer that the Eds are still alive, but it makes up for how we don't need Blitzer's service anymore," Prankster said without any grief. "Come now, Father is calling for you."

With a nod from Mask, the two leave the docking station and travel down the hallway to head where Father is waiting. As they are walking, they pass by some soldiers in a unique theme of ice cream armor, and each one of these soldiers pay no mind to the katana-wielding masked teen and ghost Heartless as the two draw near their target destination. The walk is tedious, but the two eventually made it as they wait for the automatic door to slide open and proceed to walk in on not only Father but Zip-fly as well.

The room itself is very spacious, with the room itself being an office yet there is hardly a thing in there. All of what is there is a desk, a large spiral lounge chair, a bookshelf with a couple of adult (not the perverted kind) literature, and a house plant to bring a little atmosphere to the room. Zip-fly is leaning against the north end of the room, with his back facing the nose of the ship, and he leans off as the two newcomers enter the room and approach the desk to wait on Father. The said man is standing in front of a glass mirror, looking out into the vastness of space, and he shifts his attention away

"Well Mask, I am expecting some progress from your mission," the man in shadows asked.

"The termination of Blitzer is a success," Mask replied, "however, the retrieval of Double D's Keyblade proves to be more of a challenge than we thought."

"Explain."

"Well, it appears that the Ed has pick up some skills with that weapon, all with the little time that he spent with the Keyblade," the masked teen answered, recalling all that he knows. "Sir, it may be at best that we leave the Keyblade be and focus our attention on finding the other Pure Hearted."

"And what gives you the right to say that?" asked Father. "What you are saying is that we leave the Keyblade with them and allow him to get stronger with it?"

"Father, what Mask is saying may be a dumb mistake, but he does strike a good plan," said Zip-fly calmly. "If we just focus on our search for the Pure Hearted, we can then lure the Keyblade to us and then snatch it that way."

"You mean find the other Pure Hearted, capture them so that we have all seven, and then lure the Keyblade to us so that we can finally have all that we need to complete our mission?" asked Father with a nod from both the Nobody and Mask. The man in shadows hides a smile under his black suit. "Excellent plan, my boys."

The man spins around in his chair to face the window and he reaches onto his desk to bring up several images of different people, with one being Bubbles. "With only four Pure Hearted in our grasp, and the location to the other three, we should be done with our mission in no time."

"Oh boy, I can't wait!" Prankster shouted in glee. "I just can't wait to sink my teeth onto some tasty hearts!"

"And I will gain a heart to be far more powerful than my brother Nobodies," said Zip-fly.

"And I will finally be reunited with my true love," said Mask, placing a hand over his heart.

"Get yourselves ready, my boys! We are going on the hunt for the Pure Hearted!" stated Father. "There is nothing that is going to stand in our ways of getting the Pure Hearted and more importantly... Kingdom Hearts!"

The three beings let out a loud roar in excitement and each one leave the room to allow Father be. The Heartless decides to leave for his quarters so that he can practice up on his magic, as Zip-fly leaves for the bridge to direct the soldiers there to keep the ship on course and Mask heads off to his quarters to train. Father is looking at the remaining Pure Hearted, which consists of two boys and a girl, and he can hear the sound of snickering in the room.

He spins his chair around to look around in his office, only to find no one and nothing else in his office. He checks every inch of the room, even going far into looking at the shadows to make sure that there is nothing that is spying on him. With a shrug, he turns back to study up on the Pure Hearted, all without knowing of a shadowy figure lurking up in the far upper corner of the office.

_Oh, I am quite sure you're wrong on that, Father_... a sinister voice snickers in a low tone.

OOO

**End of Act I**

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And that is the end of this act. Well, no more moments of the nostalgic Nineties...

Well, I need to break away from them in order to continue on with this story. I want to focus on doing other eras to go along with the acts (kinda how I did with _Deadlocked_ with the ranks of the Eds). Since Act I is all about the beginning age of Cartoon Network, the next act will take us through the Dark Age, or Dork Age depending on who you talk to, and then the New Decade of 2010 for Act III. At least I am taking the good shows from the Dark Age and placing them in this story. There's _NO __**WAY**_ that I am going to be featuring those others shows for worlds... unless I want to make fun of them. And trust me on this: I got one world that you will find appropriate to be gone for good. (No spoilers, please)

And I like to add something about the end there. I want to say that this is more about an elimination process, as Blitzer's true purpose is to find the location of the Pure Hearted and the Keyblade, and that I have no other uses for him (at least not in this story). I might do the same to the others, but what is to come is all up to me and even I am stumped about what to do with the others. Oh, and you will find out more about that mysterious shadow lurking in the room to come. It definitely plays a huge role in this story, unlike Ansem the... which one am I going for again? There's three different Ansems in Kingdom Hearts, with one being the real one, one being a Heartless and the other being a Nobody (yes, just figure it out who it is).

Oh, and if you want to do some fan-art, I'll be please to allow you to do so. If you want me to see it, please leave a comment on my DeviantART profile page with the link to your work (the link to my profile is on my profile. Just click on my name and scroll down to find it). I love to see other people's artwork, so it will be nice to see the Eds as they are now in your style.

And so once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is the start of Act II and the return of Traverse Town, along with some other surprises. Plus, I have a special guest appearance of one original character.


	9. Act II, Ch 09: Traverse Town II

Well, we have now left the age of the great cartoons and now entering a dark time Cartoon Network's history, where a man known as Stuart Snyder is the president and he orders the network to retool itself into a new image and brought forth some bad shows and the one thing that will haunt them for all eternity... live-action. Welcome to the Dark Age of Cartoon Network.

Wait... what am I saying? Cartoon Network didn't start to bomb at 2000, only in 2004 when it when into retooling. Still... some of the cartoons during the 2004-2009 days are good while others are bad to flat-out terrible, and we got introduced to live-action shows. Good God, the live action (I don't have a problem for a select few, but that's me). Luckily we are not focusing on the live-action OR the bad cartoons. I am going to take some of the select few that are decent and I will showcase them in worlds!

So we are back in Traverse Town this time around, and what I am going to do in this chapter is introduce a whole boatload of shows! Want to take a swing at all of the references I am going to use in this chapter? Leave your numbers in your review once you are done with this chapter.

Right now... we will begin the story!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

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Chapter Nine – Traverse Town Revisited

OOO

"Hey Double D."

"Yes, Eddy?"

"You know about this mysterious being that may be stronger than Father."

"Of course Eddy. Why do you ask?"

"I was thinking that if we ever do face him, will it be funny to find out it was the man responsible for all of this mess?"

"And what do you mean by that? There are different forces behind that, with the one behind this writing, another one being the creator of this universe in the first place..."

"I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the guy that screwed up this universe up in the first place."

"You mean what's-his-name that starts with an S?" asked Ed, stepping in on the conversation.

"Ah yes, good ol' what's-his-name..." started Eddy. "I want to strangle him."

"Along with others in the universe," said Dexter. "Even I want to lay my hands on that man so that I can teach him a lesson or two about dealing with power he cannot comprehend."

The group is meeting up at the front gates of Traverse Town, where they are meeting with the boy genius about fixing up the _Midnight Hummer_ to allow the Eds to travel further in the universe. As of now, they can only explore the three worlds of Townsville, Nowhere and Washington, D.C. Dexter explains that once he installs the Gummi block, the Eds will be able to travel much more space than before and can check out the other worlds.

With a full explanation down, Dexter waves to the boys and the Kankers as he lifts his tool box and got inside of the Gummi ship to get busy. He said that it will take an hour or two to get the block in, which gives the Eds plenty of time to explore the town some more and get all of their supplies. Along with that, they can drop the other cul-de-sac children at TOM's home and get them settle down before leaving to find the others. But the first thing is to get the supplies, and the Eds groan that they do not want to drag the Kankers, and Rolf, with them as they go shopping.

Luckily Dexter's sister Dee-Dee is there and she escorts the sisters and the foreign boy away from the others, all while making with a conversation with the sisters and leaving Rolf to wonder what the girls are talking about. The Ed boys let out a sigh of relief, now knowing that they do not have to worry about carrying the extra load. So with that, the Eds begin their journey through Traverse Town, with their moment of relaxation upon them and glowing brightly in their faces.

Unlike their first visit to town, they take notice that there is sunlight loaming over the city. Double D takes a guess that the world is much like the others in a way that it does revolve and will experience a time of day and night, but what confuses him is the lack of a star in the nearby area. Either way, the Eds can see that the town is bursting with life, with residents roaming the streets and businesses open to sell their products. Along the way, the boys take notice of a poster hanging up on the wall, featuring two girls in a pose while holding onto guitars.

"_For one week only, Puffy Ami Yumi here live in Traverse Town_," the smart Ed reads off, "_with special guest Voltaire, performing his hits such as 'Land of the Dead' and 'BRAINS!'_"

"Puffy Ami Yumi?" echoed Eddy. "I haven't heard them for a long time now."

"I'm guessing that this must be their comeback concert," said Double D. "It may be that they were working on some music but the general population forgot about them."

"Say, didn't you get something in the mail about a thing for a music school?" asked the greedy Ed.

"It was a transfer application Eddy for another school, and my parents wanted me to attend their music class all because of my 'musical' talent."

"Really? You play an instrument or sing?" asked Normadomus.

"My parents gave me lessons to play the steel-base guitar. Curse that annoying thing."

"But why don't you play it?" questioned Ed. "You make really great music."

"It's just... I don't know. It's how I am," the smart Ed replied. "Now, are we going to stand here all day, or are we going to get some stuff done?"

"I really would like to hear you play," Ed's hat asked. "By what I'm hearing, you must have some talent to play such an instrument."

"And he can play it with his feet while reading!" stated the tall Ed.

Normadomus can only whistle as Double D grumbles under his breath. The boys leave the poster alone as they begin to explore more of the town, catching a glimpse of a Shadow being chased by a girl with long black hair with a streak of purple, wearing a green shirt, blue jeans and brown suits. She defeats the Heartless with only swift kick to the back, finishing the creature off and causing the heart to float up into the skies. The Eds watch as the girl heads off, running in the distance as the boys pay no more attention to her as they continue on.

Along the way, they take notice of a café nearby where the General Store is, and sitting at the few tables is a lone robot with a square head, a light bulb-looking dome on top, and wearing everyday clothing lovely staring at a teenage girl with more dental equipment than Jimmy from across several tables. There's also a robed figure, carrying a scythe, talking to a strange-looking person that is clearly a dog about some matters concerning the dog. The Eds stop to listen in on the conversation, hearing bits about how this robed figure can not find any signs of any life coming from the dog's world.

"Is that Death?" questioned Double D.

"What makes you say that?" asked Eddy.

"Well his appearance gives him the ominous feel of death around him, and that scythe of his clearly shows that it is use for the reaping of human souls," the smart Ed explained. "It seems like he is the Grim Reaper indeed, but there's something about him that strikes me as odd?"

"How can it be odd?" asked Ed. "He is the Grim Reaper! He does not have anything odd about him!"

"And once again, Ed is idolizing a figure from one of his comic books that just somehow comes to life right before our eyes," Eddy sarcastically stated.

"You really don't get out often, do you?" Ed's hat joked.

The robed figure finishes his conversation with the dog and turns away to walk off, coming face-to-face with the Eds. From what they are seeing, the robed figure has a skull for a face, finally confirming that this man is indeed the Grim Reaper. The reaper approaches the Eds with a stern look on his face, looking discomforting about something as he stops right at the boys.

"Hey, how's it going Ed boys?" the skeleton asked in a Jamaican accent.

"Not much," replied Double D. "How do you know of us?"

"Oh you know, I am the Grim Reaper after all. I need to keep track of everyone in the universe you know, including you four."

"So does this mean you know when we are going to die?" asked Ed, sounding pleased to be meeting one of his favorite characters.

Grim takes his scythe and he runs it all over the Eds, scanning each one of them as he collects the data on them. Once he got down to their toes, he takes the blade and pulls it up to his face where he can read off the data to them. "Well according to this, you boys will die of natural causes," the reaper said, "so that means you three will not have to worry until later in your lives."

"And me?" Normadomus asked.

"Same thing, though I am not quite certain about your new look, mon. Look, I need to get back to babysitting this snot-nosed brat of mine," said Grim. "With what's-her-name out of the picture, I am still stuck with him for all eternity, and at least it's better than living with her."

The reaper begins to walk away and the Eds watch him as the Grim Reaper starts to dance excitedly, calling out in celebration while shouting over and over that he is no longer in the hands of a certain girl. The boys turn their attention to the dog at the table, who is now getting service from a large bald man in a work uniform, as the man takes the empty cups and replace them will full ones and the dog drinks every last one of them. Ed offers to go pet the dog to make him feel better, but he got beat to the punch by a little redhead girl in a green dress, as she got next to the dog to talk to him about what is going through and other details.

The boys shrug this off as they focus on their main objective: the General Store. They approach the store and all three walk through the door, which cause the store owner Giovanni to walk out onto the counter and Newt to climb down off of the ladder to get back down on ground level. The Eds walk up to the counter, where the clerk is rubbing his hands in delight about the money he is going to earn.

"Ah, look who finally decides to drop by," he said. "I see that you found your friends."

"Oh yes I did," answered Double D. "This here is Ed and Eddy."

"Well, please to meet you boys. The name's Giovanni and I am the owner of this store," the man said, extending out his right arm.

The small Ed takes notice of Giovanni's left arm and he jumps back as the clerk's right hand approaches him. "Oh, no way! You can't be serious! What are you doing here, alive?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Giovanni.

"We all thought you were dead!" the greedy Ed snapped. "You blew yourself up with your robo-arm all in the act of greed! We all saw it with our very eyes!"

The store clerk and his employee give the Eds a blank stare. "I... have absolutely no idea what you are talking about," the clerk replied flatly. "You must be talking about a different person."

"But I swear..."

"Eddy, that's quite enough!" Double D stated angrily. "It's rude to be talking to other people like that, especially elderly folks like that."

"Actually I am not that old," Giovanni pitched. "I'm in my late thirties and this is a special dye that I used to make it look like this."

"But then... what about your arm?"

"Oh this. Well... I got this a month after the war ended, when the times were tough and we were fighting against a maniacal genius with the Heartless and Nobodies. Those were some tough times, indeed."

"And believe us, those were some times," said Newt. "Giovanni used to work on the _Absolution_ before being called to work for some of the others on our side, fixing up everything that he can get his hands on."

"That was until I encounter the one and only Zip-fly himself..." the clerk hangs his head low as he said that name. "The Nobody is ruthless and devastating, with only destruction on his mind as I watch comrades after comrade fall before his blades. It's a miracle that I lost this arm and nothing else on that day, or else I wouldn't be here talking to you at all."

"And it's a good thing that I was there to help you out," said Newt. "If I didn't get you to the medics and gave you that arm, you've died from lost of blood."

"And really, I can't thank you any more for that day."

"Well, I still need to pay off for that Elixir+ that I broke," the employee said, growing a sheepish smile on his face. "But, I am doing all that I can to repay you."

Giovanni shoots his employee an evil look before dropping the look and shifting his attention to the Ed boys. "So, what can I get for you today?" he asked. "Are you in the mood for some items or for accessories?"

"We would like to have two bottles of Hi-Potions and one bottle of Mega Ether, please," the smart Ed ordered.

"Right then, so I'll allow Newt to go get..." before Giovanni can finish his sentence, the young male reacts lightning fast by placing the three bottles that the Eds seek right onto the counter and backing away to leave the group confused about the situation. "... All right, so that'll be 850."

Eddy looks around the others to see where the Munny is, until they all look up at Normadomus and the greedy Ed takes him off of Ed's head to flip him over. Inside there is a bag full of Munny, and the Ed takes out the amount needed to pay off for the bottles. The boy hands the Munny over to the clerk, who then counts through to see if he got the right amount, and he places the Munny inside of a special cash register.

"All right, that should do it," the clerk said. "Would you boys like anything else?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," answered Double D. "We are in need of some..."

The door swings open and the bell plays, and everyone turns to notice a woman walking into the door. She has pale, ivory skin, in stark contrast with her almost-glowing cat-green eyes, with her ash-blonde hair partly covering her right eye, and falls straightly down to her waist. She is wearing a long, silk gown without any sleeves, so two straps hold it up over her arm, with the gown below the waist is spilt in half around mid-thigh, showing off her legs (with a visible pair of small, black shorts at the top of her legs). She is also wearing a pair of golden gladiator sandals, with the laces coming up to her knees, and is completed with a long black cape with silver satin trimming.

As she is walking up to the counter, the boys can notice that there is no expression on her face until she is facing the man behind the counter. "Why good day to you, Giovanni," she said with a smile.

"Ah, Lady Lilienne, what a pleasure of having you here today," Giovanni said politely.

"Giovanni, you know that I am not fond of you calling me Lady," the woman said as she got up to the counter.

"Of course, my dear. Now... are you here for your usual order, correct?"

"Indeed I am," she answered. "It's just that can you throw in a Necraga Charm in as well?"

"Oh, you're making a Death Magic staff aren't ya?" the clerk chuckled. "Newt, fetch this lady her order! We can't make her wait any longer!"

"Oh, right away sir!" the employee replied, rushing to get into the back room.

Normadomus begins to push on Ed's head, telling him to move forward and the tall boy did so as his hat command, walking up to the woman "Tell me... are you the Lilienne Ombrus, the infamous Mage known throughout the universe?" asked the hat.

"Well, I am not certain on the 'infamous' part," the woman chuckled, "but yes I am. And you must be the famed Normadomus of Varia, correct?"

The hat is shocked. "H... How did you know of that title?" he stated. "I haven't used that for a long time now!"

"Come now, you are well-known across this universe as much as I am, but I am no where compare to a master as yourself," Lilienne said. "So tell me, O great wizard, why is it that you are sitting on top of one simple-minded child?"

"It's a long story," is the hat's response. "The boy's my chauffer for the time being, and I can't really rely on my magic alone to fend off against the Heartless. Plus, the boys need me for my magic skills, so I am joining them on their journey."

"So the great Normadomus, who is known throughout this universe quite like I for his magic skills, is now resting on top of a boy who can't seem to perceive his multiplication tables."

"Look, I don't know who you are here, lady," growls Eddy, "but no one disrespects Ed like that!"

"Oh, really? Come now child, you really think that you can take someone that is clearly stronger than you in combat," Lilienne said, placing a finger on the small Ed's head. "If you were to face off against me, I would easily disintegrate your body with a measly Shade spell."

Eddy can only growl at this remark, knowing that he does not stand a chance against this person, now revealing herself to be a Mage. As Lilienne backs away from the Eds, Newt returns from the back room with arms full of supplies for the Mage. The employee lays the supplies out onto the counter, showing off some gems, a few rings, a couple of bottles of Potions and Ethers, and a very basic wooden staff. The Mage's eyes light up as she picks up a dark gray charm from the mix to get a feel of it in her hands.

"Are you happy with what you got?" asked Giovanni.

"As usual," Lilienne replied, picking up her supplies. "Just put everything on my tab and I will return with your payment."

"That'll be fine by me. Oh, and I would like to see this new staff once you are done."

With a nod from the Mage, Newt walks up to the door to help escort the woman out of the store and he closes the door once she is out on the streets. The Eds watch Lilienne through the store windows, seeing her branch away from the General Store and off to another part of town. The boys turn around to face the clerk and his employee, with the three Eds wanting answers about that woman.

"So who was that?" asked Eddy.

"That's Lilienne Ombrus and she's a bit of a mysterious figure," replied Newt. "At least she is to all of us. We don't know where she came from or anything about her past. All we do know is she used to travel from world to world and has the power to even decimate them completely."

"I've heard about that spell of hers," said Normadomus. "It's a very strong Darkness spell that will leave the world blank as my eyes."

Ed snickers at this and his hat tilts back to whack the boy in the back of his head. "Boy, do you want to feel her fury?"

"No?"

"That's a good answer," said the hat. "In which, I am curious about what she is doing here."

"She owns a staff shop here in town, in which she supplies her staffs through synthesizing items to make them," explained Giovanni. "If you are lucky, you can get your hands on her latest staff and hopefully use that in your fights."

"A new staff?" asked Ed, pulling out Nerd's Tools to look it over. "I could use a new staff."

"And I could use a new shield myself," the small Ed said, taking Jumbo Jawbreaker off of his back to examine it. "Is there a shop that offers anything for shields?"

"Sorry kid, but there's not a shop like that here," the clerk shrugged. "The only way to get yourself a new shield is through the blacksmiths in the United Kingdom, and that's a _long_ haul from here."

"Well, it'll be some time before Dexter is finish with our ship," said Double D, "so we can hold out on getting you a new shield, Eddy."

"I can wait. Maybe since we are here, we can go find the candy store and get ourselves some new kind of Jawbreakers."

"Yum, yum, yum! Jawbreakers!" bellowed Ed, running towards the exit and crashing right through the door.

Everyone flinches upon seeing Ed throw himself through the door, only to see that the boy is standing outside without the slightest clue as to where to go and his hat is shaking from the terror. The other Eds walk up, with the smart Ed sighing and the greedy Ed grumbling, the boys decide what to next. Double D insists that they visit Lilienne's store, only to see what is there for sale and put a staff on hold until they can earn the money for it. Eddy, however, wants to go by the candy store and get themselves some Jawbreakers with whatever Munny they have left over.

After some moments of arguing, the trio decides to visit the Mage, and they turn to the direction of the store. As they approach the store, they can see a few staffs hanging up front in the two windows, being displayed for everyone to see. The boys take notice of the "Open" sign and they proceed inside to catch glimpse of a much larger store. The walls are lined with staffs, ranging from the size Ed is wielding to triple the size of Rolf even, and in the middle of the room are staffs that look like wands.

Eddy jokes about how these staffs appear to be huge unless you are a size of a duck, and his joke did not receive any positive feedback. They can hear a door swinging open and the boys look back to see Lilienne carrying a large cauldron, with a green liquid bubbling inside and a wooden mixing spoon sticking out from the mix. She swings around the counter and places the cauldron down in a niche big enough to fit the large metal object, and the Mage turns around to note the Eds in the room.

"Why, is this quite a surprise," she said. "Welcome to my humble store. Is there any staff that is sticking out to you?"

Ed tilts his head to examine the staffs that lie on the store's walls and he walks up to the said wall to begin looking over the weapon that he wants to wield. With a wide variety to choose from, he asks his friends to help in the search for the perfect magic staff that the wizarding Ed can carry. Lilienne steps up and asks the tall Ed to speak with Normadomus in private, and he kindly accepts the offer, in which he takes his hat off of his head and hands it over to the Mage. Once out of the way, the Mage places the hat onto the counter and she grabs a seat so that she can focus her attention on Normadomus while be near her mix.

"Well, to say that this is quite an honor to have you here in my store," said Lilienne.

"Well... it may be to you, but just look at me," the hat said. "I am a hat of all things!"

"Still, you are Normadomus of Varia. A powerful wizard us as your self will always be a wizard no matter what form he or she is in."

"Yes, quite true. So Lilienne, I need to know if you know any transformation spells that can help me turn back to normal."

"I am sorry, but I do not know any sort of spells that can revert you back to your human self."

"Then you know of anything that can break a seal?" the hat asked.

"It depends on the seal, then yes," answered Lilienne. "But... if it deals with you in this case, then I am sorry."

"Well can't you look at the seal and see if it is something that you can override?"

The woman nods to this and picks the hat up so that she can peer inside of the hat. On the inside, she can see the back of Normadomus' zipper mouth and stitches that make him up, along with an ink purple formation lined to opposite side of the hat's face. Lilienne can make out part of it, with only half of it too dark to read with the lightning she has and the rest is alien to her.

"Well?" is Normadomus' question.

"It appears to be a new seal," answered the Mage, turning Normadomus right side up. "I have not seen such an arrangement like that before. It is clearly formed by a powerful user of Darkness magic, possibly even using an advance form of Shadaj..."

The wizard hat realizes what Lilienne is saying and he slaps her mouth shut to prevent her from finishing her sentence. The Mage shoots Normadomus an evil glare before the hat removes the top half of himself and returns a glare of his own.

"Shh! Don't even utter that suffix!" the hat hissed. "I don't want the boy to find out about that suffix whatsoever!"

"And why not? You know of that suffix and... oh, I see what you mean," Lilienne said, looking up to finally take notice of what Ed is made of.

"As you can see, the boy is very destructive when it comes to his magic skills. He only knows Thundara and Fire, but I am afraid of what will happen if he increases any of those abilities any further."

"Explain."

"Take for instances his Thundara. He is capable of generating a lightning strike one-fourths in strength similar to a natural lightning bolt. Not to mention that the boy did a spell very similar to how he can perform a Thundaga, which is equivalent to a bomb going off!"

"Really? This boy has that much raw power to create such mana to create a spell he did not learn?" asked Lilienne in amazement.

"Indeed. Now, if you take into perspective as to what I just said, try to image what that boy can do if he learned that Thunder's suffix."

The Mage leans back in her seat and begins to imagine what sort of power Ed can wield if he did learn the highest Thunder spell possible. As Lilienne imagines it, she can see the ground beneath Ed's feet cracking up and splitting opening from the sheer strength from the lightning bolt. If what Normadomus is saying is true, then if this boy ever learns this spell: it will make him the strongest Mage (or Sage, in Ed's case) in the universe by sheer power alone.

Lilienne shivers after thinking of that destructive thought, and she turns around to check up on her brew. Bubbles are forming by the second and the Mage got to work by stirring the batch up some more and adding in some of the ingredients she purchased from Giovanni's store. Normadomus takes notes of what she is adding in, now noticing that the spoon she is using is the staff she acquired, and he figures that she is going to turn this plain staff into a more powerful staff for someone to wield.

"If you are wondering what I am making, I am trying to get a Darkness-type staff ready to be put up," Lilienne said. "I want to add some more variety to this store, so making this will possibly bring in more..."

Her sentence is cut off by the sound of crashing and the two magic wielders turn to notice that a quarter of staffs missing off of the racks. The weapons are lying on the ground next to the tall Ed, who is flinching from the incoming staffs, and once he realizes that the raining of wood is stop he looks up to notice the mess he made. He looks towards where Lilienne is, who is not very pleased with the situation Ed made, who can only give a sheepish smile to the Mage.

"GET OUT!" she bellowed. "GET OUT NOW BEFORE I USE OMBRAL EMBRACE ON YOUR BEHINDS!"

With that warning, the Eds are scrambling across the room, with Double D reaching for Normadomus, Eddy bursting right for the door and Ed stumbling on the staffs he spilled. Once all three are out, the small Ed closes the door and the hat jumps up onto the tall Ed's head in fear of the Mage, and all three got to running in case Lilienne is still mad at them to go chasing after them. The Eds enter an alleyway and wait for a moment to make sure that Lilienne is indeed not chasing them before venturing back into the open.

"Well... there's my exercise for the day," huffed Double D.

"Way to go Lumpy," stated Eddy angrily. "What did you do anyway to get her mad like that?"

"I saw this cool looking staff that is calling out to me," the tall Ed answered, "but it was too high up for me to reach. I tried to jump up there..."

"And let me guess," said Double D. "The jumping you did cause the room to shake and the staffs fell off their racks because of the vibrations of your jumping?"

"In English?" is the small Ed's answer.

"He means that the boy's jumping knocked down off of the shelves without him touching them!" stated Normadomus.

"All right, I get it!"

"You're not that well-educated, aren't you?"

"He's someone that much rather be counting quarters than solving logarithms," said the smart Ed.

"Really, logarithms? That's some advance math for someone like you," Normadomus said. "Well any way, if you boys don't mind my home is nearby. We can relax there for the time being and probably wait out the time until we can head out and continue on our journey."

"You have any snacks?" asked Ed.

"I may have some food in my storage. Hopefully they hadn't spoiled when I was out... Oh well, let's get going!"

Normadomus points the way to his home and Ed takes to the lead, as he is the one in control of his hat. The others begin to follow as well, but Double D can sense someone from behind him. He turns around to make sure no one is following them, only to rotate to face Mask standing right in his way. The smart Ed jumps from the teen's sudden appearance and whips out his Keyblade in defense, but Mask is standing there with his arms across his back and nothing else moving.

Double D lowers his guard and calls back Joker's Wild to take a step forward to see who this mysterious teen is. "... Is that you?" he asked.

"So... you know who I really am."

"Well it is a little hard, but I believe we met before somewhere else."

"Yes... when you were fighting for your freedom and I was on the neutral side, helping the good in getting free as well."

"But then, why are you here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the teen asked, drawing his katana. "It is because of your word!"

"My word? What word?"

"You swore that you will protect her at all cost, didn't you?"

"I-I tried to protect her, but I don't know who you are..." the smart Ed begins to dawn onto an idea. "But what about you? Didn't you swear to protect her as well?"

Mask realizes this error. "So what? I tried my best at getting her to safety, but she chose to fall to the darkness. And now she is somewhere in this universe with no guide, no help, nothing!"

"At least I am trying to get her back with some help! You could at least join us in our quest in finding her."

"Now why should I join you? I have Father to help me out in my quest, plus the benefits of Prankster and Zip-fly at my disposal."

"WHAT! You are working for them? Don't you realize that they will turn on you and you could wind up like Blitzer?"

"You do realize that he was sent to you because I was assigned to dispose of him. He was invaluable to us, now that we got the location of the other Pure Hearted."

"But what good will come out of that? You know that Father will turn against you and you will get the short end of the deal!"

"At least I am not a Heartless or a Nobody! I do have a goal that can be achieve without finding what we are searching for! I want to get the girl that Father took from me and I will get her through any means necessary!"

"But still, we can work together if we just work together! Leave Father and join..."

This trip something inside of the teen's head and he grabs onto the Ed's collar with his free hand to pin the boy against the alleyway wall. Mask takes his katana and aims the tip right at Double D's neck, causing the Ed to nervously look down upon the sharp blade that could eventually slice his throat open. "Now listen here," the teen said. "I don't need your help in getting her back. I have everything that I need to get her on my own, and if you _dare_ lay a hand on her..." Mask draws back his katana to get up to Double D's ear. "Let's just say you won't be seeing your friends any time soon."

As he draws his face away from the Ed, the boy notices something different about the teen's mask. Up on the upper-left corner of his mask, there is a crack in the black face that is slightly visible in the limited lighting. Mask decides to release Double D from his grasp, allowing the boy to drop to the ground, still in fear of the blade cutting him. The teen squat down and places a finger on the shaking Ed's head, quietly saying "Sleep tight" before gently pushing his finger off and causing Double D to fall asleep.

"Hey buddy! Get away from him!" shouted the voice of Eddy.

Mask stares down the direction of where the other Eds are coming and lets out a smirk. "Well, my time is up now," he said. He turns his attention to the smart Ed. "I'll see you around Double D."

With that, Mask got up from his position and flashes a salute before disappearing into thin air. The two Eds rush up to where Mask was once standing and take notice of the sleeping Ed lying across the alleyway. Ed starts to shake the smart Ed, hoping that will awake him, but Eddy stops him before he can seriously injure him and Ed's hat explains that he has something that can awaken him back at his home. With that in mind, Ed lifts Double D off of the ground and got him on his back, giving the smart Ed a piggy-back ride all the way to Normadomus' home.

OOO

Double D finds himself in a middle of a vast blank room, with him sitting on the wet ground with feet cross and hands on his knees. All that is coming to him is a single light hanging above him and nothing but black beyond this light. He is the only one in this room, and he is alone in this room. He has nothing to do but sit on this water and wait for something to happen to him.

_It's strange, but it feels like I have been here before._

He can hear the sound of water dripping behind him and he spins around to notice someone else in this room. Though the light is there, he can make only the outline of this person, as this figure is standing far away in the shadows. From what he is getting, he is seeing a girl, and a girl that he knows! He attempts to reach out and to the girl, but when he opens his mouth, nothing is coming out.

_Why can't I say her name? Why can't I say anything at all?_

"Double D..."

The Ed jumps at this and he looks up to notice the girl staring right back at him. He got up onto his feet, his rear not wet from sitting on the water, and he starts to walk towards the girl but only to notice that the girl is moving away from him. Double D is baffled by this as each step he makes, the girl is moving away without moving her own feet. He got himself into a sprint, but this is not helping at all so he stops his running and he notices that the girl is not moving at all.

"Please... get me."

_Wait! Hold on! Don't go!_

The girl begins to walk away from Double D, as he tries to reach out and run towards her, but each step is sending them further and further away. The girl does stop, only to turn back and flash the boy a warm smile.

"I'll be waiting for you."

With that last word, the girl disappears into the shadows, leaving Double D alone once again. The Ed starts to tear up, feeling weak in the knees and he collapse onto the ground with his anger rising. As tears trickle down his face, he takes a fist and pounds the water, hitting the liquid as hitting solid earth, only to allow his anger and sadness

_Why? Why wasn't I able to protect her? Why wasn't _he_ able to protect her?_

"_Power_..."

Double D quickly jumps up onto his feet, startled by the noise. He looks all around him in search of the noise, but no go. He checks above and finds nothing above his head, and he checks below his feet, only to catch a glimpse of his shadow and nothing but. Wait, something about his shadow looks off, so he looks back down to see that his shadow is all right, but there is something hiding under the water.

"_Power_..."

Indeed, there is something under the water, and by what it appears to be a man of some sort. It is hard to tell with the light only fixed on Double D, but he can see a shadow outline of the man, whose appearance is new to the boy. He tries to move towards the figure, but like with the girl, the shadow is moving with the light and it makes it hard for the Ed to figure out who this man is and why is he under the water.

"_Power... Power... POWER..._"

The figure reaches toward Double D, going through the water and right at him. The Ed makes for a run, but the man latches onto the boy's leg, trapping him to that spot. As Double D struggles, he makes an attempt to summon the Keyblade but nothing appears. He continues to struggle, and the man starts to rise up from the water, with a devilish smile on his face and a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"_I seek power. I demand power. I want... YOUR POWER!_"

OOO

The smart Ed shoots straight up from his sleep, rising up to uncover from his blanket and his vision slightly blurred. Once his eyes adjust to the setting where he is at, he takes notice of being in a living room, with gold colored walls, red oak paneling, bookshelves stacked with thick books, a couple of antique lounge chairs, and a dark green carpet floor. There is a steel spiral staircase in one corner of the room with one exit going into the main hallway, where Ed steps through carrying a silver tray with food ready to be serve.

"It was my idea," his hat answered. "I would be doing this but since I am what I am and all... So I see you are awake."

"Yes I am," said Double D. "So is this your home?"

"Indeed it is," Normadomus said, instructing Ed to place the tray onto an end table. "This is my personal little cottage here in Traverse Town. It's nothing special at all, but it is the only one with an observatory."

"Oh really? May I see it?"

"Yes you may. It is right up the staircase, but you should sit down for some time after that little scare."

"Why? What happened to me?"

"We don't know," said Ed, taking a cup and swinging his drink. "We found you sleeping in the alley with some strange person."

"Oh yes, I remember that. And then I had this strange and vivid dream..."

"What kind of dream?" asked the hat.

"It deals with me in the middle of blackness and a light is shining down onto me," Double D explained, clutching onto his head. "I was sitting on some water and I wasn't getting wet from it. Then I noticed this girl... I can remember her face, but strangely I can't remember her name."

"Tell me... is this one of your Awakenings?"

"Excuse me?"

"An Awakening is something like a dream, but it helps those who wield Keyblades to unlock their potentials," Ed's hat explained, "especially when wielding the weapon itself."

"How do you know this?" asked Ed.

"Well don't you see all of these books on the walls?" Normadomus replied, allowing the Eds to look up at some of the books on the shelves. "There is a reason to do your research."

"But to answer your question, I don't believe it is an Awakening," answered Double D. "I think this is more of a nightmare."

"A nightmare?"

"Yes. I tried to chase after this girl, but I wasn't going anyway and it appears that the girl is getting farther away from me. Once she left, this mysterious man appeared from the water below and started to grab me. He lifted up from the water with an evil gleam in his eyes and a devilish smile on his face..."

"Well that certainly doesn't sound like an Awakening," said Normadomus. "Did the man have a purple outline or a red outline?"

"I believe it was purple."

"Then I guess we are dealing with something else," said the hat. "From what we saw, that person in the alley must be acting like a messenger for whoever this man is, and he wants to give us a message about something. To what it is I don't know, but it may be something that involves not only us but..."

Normadomus' sentence is cut off by the sound of Eddy hollering on the top of his lungs. The small Ed is surfing down the spiral staircase on top of a thick book, bumping down the stairs before hitting the floor and crashing. The book beneath his feet slid right out from under him and went across the floor before landing a few feet away from the crashed Ed.

"What in the world are you doing?" shouted the hat. "You have any idea what kind of damage you did to one of my books?"

The small Ed's leg twitches in response, not emitting any sound from his mouth and Normadomus lets out a sigh to this. He then notices the book that is lying on the ground and asks Ed to go retrieve it. With that order in motion, Ed got up from his seat, picks the book up and sat back down with the cover facing him and his hat.

"Ah yes, I remember this title," said Normadomus. "_The History and Myths of Traverse Town_. My, I had such a time dissecting this town's history. "

"You have a page bookmarked," Double D pointed out. "Any given reason?"

Ed notices the red felt that is wedged between the pages and he opens the book to the section that is bookmarked. On the page are a picture of a bell tower and two armor beings standing next to it. The hat wide-eyes the image and Double D got up from his seat to check out this page to see what is in this section.

"Now I remember this section very clearly," said the hat. "This tells the tale about the Guard Armors being the guardians of Traverse Town at night, to where the Heartless is more plentiful and stronger."

"Will you care to explain this story?" asked Double D politely.

"Certainly. It began with a master craftsman that vision in making a safe town from the Heartless when they were introduced into the universe. He lived the bell tower, in which he built with his own two hands, and he created the two Guard Armors by himself in that exact bell tower. Everyone says that he was responsible for creating this town, but he denied those rumors.

"But he was indeed a mastermind when making these Guard Armors. It is believed that he can control them through the bell tower through when the bell will strike; they will take part in a certain task. It is said that when the bell will strike twelve, they will create a move that will defeat all of the Heartless in Traverse Town!"

"Fascinating!" stated Double D. "Is there more?"

"Well, the craftsman was falling ill and he did not want to see that his creations were destroyed, so he made the town promise not to destroy the Guard Armors when he finally died. Once he did, one of the Armors went berserk and decided to destroy the town it once protected. The other Armor did its best in taking down its counterpart, but the town feared that the surviving Armor will fall into corruption...

"So they made a deal with a wizard in creating a spell that will prevent the surviving Guard Armor from going berserk. It is said that when the bell strikes thirteen at night, the Armor will rise from its slumber and once again walk among its citizens, but if the clock strikes thirteen again, it will fall back to sleep," Normadomus said, finishing his story. "For all of this time, even my time living in this town, I have never heard the clock strike thirteen times and it never will!"

"Well it can be achieved if only the clock functions on military time," said Double D. "And speaking of which, how long was I out for?"

"Almost for an hour," answered Ed's hat.

"An hour, huh? Then that means it is almost noon, correct?"

"Correct. And speaking of which... I do want to check up on TOM and his fellow companions. Get your friend there and meet us at the door."

Ed rises up from the chair and places the book down on the table, walking away from Double D as he makes his way for the door. The smart Ed walks up to Eddy and shakes him awake, telling him that they are leaving to go visit TOM. That got the greedy Ed back up on his feet and he rushes up to the door, waiting on the slower Double D to catch up, before venturing back out into the open. Once they are outside, Eddy places his arms behind his head and Double D is strolling right behind Ed, with the tall boy keeping his typical smile on his face.

"You know, I don't understand why there aren't as many Heartless roaming the streets," said Eddy.

"It's the sunlight Eddy," Ed pointed out. "They don't like the sunlight."

"True, but the town is very much protected thanks to the Global Kids Next Door and the Galactic Guardians," said Normadomus.

"The Kids Next Door?" echoed Eddy. "I've know of their name, but I never thought they have a global thingy."

"Well such an organization like that does have a tendency of branching out to help out others in need," said the smart Ed.

It did not take them long to reach the home of the blue robot, reaching the door in minutes and Eddy walks up to knock on the door. The black eyes and green helmet of Two appears behind the door, and the door opens up to allow the boys to walk on it. This time around, the alarm has been disarmed so that they will not get a surprise attack from Dash this time around. With that said, the said robot and TOM enter the room, talking about some business before noticing the guest in the room.

"Well hello," said TOM. "What brings you here today?"

"For one, how are the others adjusting to their new settings?" asked Double D, wondering about the Kankers and Rolf.

"You mean your friends? They are doing fine. Dash and Two got the rooms set when we heard about them coming and they made sure to match their needs."

"That one tall boy is very strange on his needs," Dash pointed out. "He keeps babbling about some odd stuff I couldn't understand and complaining about some missing things, but I told him that we'll get it cover once we figure out what he is trying to say."

"That's Rolf for ya," said Eddy.

As everyone is talking, Ed looks over to notice a cage sitting next to a window. In the cage is a typical setting for a hamster and of course the little animal itself. The little fuzz ball is a cute looking hamster, with mostly white fur and some orange spots over him, and he has some big black eyes on him. Ed walks up to the cage and sticks a finger inside of the cage to pet the hamster, and he got the little creature to get petted by his finger.

"Aw, isn't he cute!" the tall Ed stated.

"Oh this little guy," the blue robot said, taking the hamster out of his cage to pet him. "I got him from a black market salesman trying to sell me used ship parts."

"A salesman selling you ship parts somehow ended up selling you a hamster?" the smart Ed asked, stumped on the wording for that question.

"No. I found him struggling in his cage, so I tricked the salesman and took the little guy away to be on my ship. It's strange, but I remember seeing the little guy from somewhere before."

"So... what is this war we keep hearing about?" asked Eddy.

"Yes. Is it something like the World Wars, or more of a struggle dispute?" questioned Double D.

"Well, it's more of a war against idealism, and it's not what you are thinking," answered TOM. "You see, there are these people who appear to be much different from the rest of us, telling all of us that they belong in this universe with us. Our front kept on saying that they should not belong on our side, but the leader being the epidemic is a strange man and he wanted to make the universe to split in half."

"Wait... epidemic?" parroted Double D. "I thought this is a war."

"It is, but its more popular name is the Seeing Real Epidemic, to where we are dealing with a strong force and lost several worlds to this new threat..." TOM looks away as he collects his thoughts. "We lost some good people during those years, but we managed to survive through it and won it in the end."

"Some say that there are still those people on the opposite end living among us," said Two, throwing his two-cents in. "Luckily it is just a story and nothing more."

"And so, during the war, in our part of the universe," started TOM, "we had problems in dealing with a group of men that some power from an unknown organization. They call themselves the Big Four and others call them Team Four-Star... but what good will that matter? All that matters to them is taking down some of the more popular worlds. Among them were a hidden village, a domed civilization that is home to giant robots, and a vast ocean world where pirates rule.

"Those were some of their targets, along with the rest of that sector. We did have some outside help to get some worlds protected, but the Big Four were too strong for us. They had some help from the leader of the resistance and he was there to enjoy the downfall of all of those worlds."

"And that was around the time Father came in and took our ship!" stated Dash. "The KND were some help to us at that time, but they were no match for Father's minions."

"So the Kids Next Door had a hard time taking down Blitzer and the others?" said Double D, pondering on the idea. "I can imagine such, but they should have won with the numbers that they have."

"No. Not even their legendary sector, Sector Z, can take them down," said the speed robot. "Father even took them and turn into his own children!"

"That's terrible!" the smart Ed yelled. "What kind of man will brainwash children and make them his own puppets?"

"Apparently Father," answered TOM. "If only I can go find my ship so that I can fight him and reclaim both my ship and SARA..."

"Well if you need some help, then why not call T—"

"Oh no, I am not resorting to call those guys in helping me reclaiming my ship!" the blue robot stated, cutting Ed's hat off. "I know how they work and I can't trust being with them in getting back my ship."

"But you don't know who I was going to say," the hat replied. "All I was going to say was T—"

"Oh, those guys... and the answer is still no. I am not willing to put my faith into their hands if they want to go fight Father."

The Eds and Normadomus are wondering who the robot is talking about, and just when they are going to ask that question, TOM kindly asks them to leave. With that in mind, the boys take to the street, where they are standing with a puzzled look on their faces. Eddy starts to ask Ed's hat about who is trying to say, and he answers his question to now inform the group.

"Oh... who are they?" the small Ed asked.

"Oh they're just a trio of men that go about and travel to different worlds and such," the hat replied. "They're nothing really but they do get the job done."

Double D starts to feel slightly woozy and he clutches onto his shirt, and the others begin to worry for him, but he looks straight up to notice a fountain and a bell tower in the distance. The boys run up to where the fountain is, realizing that this fountain is really a memorial, and the bell tower is giving a perfect lighting to the statues on this memorial. For the statues stand five people, teens judging by their ages, with four looking like males and one female and one of the males looks like a rhinoceros.

The Eds notice a plaque right at the statues' feet and the smart Ed steps forward to read off what is written. "_For those who lost their lives during the Great War of the Seeing Real Epidemic_," it reads, before going off to listing off several names of worlds and people's names. "How touching, but why are these five here?" asked the Ed.

"Maybe they were real heroes and that they deserve the statue?" Eddy shrugged.

"Or maybe the person creating this really likes them and wants to have the statues erected in their honor to make us remember who they are," Normadomus pitched flatly.

The smart Ed raises both an eyebrow and a finger to the last sentence, wondering why Ed's hat just said that. "I... I'm going with the former on that," he said.

The boy turns around and he squints through the legs of the statues to make out a formation of light collecting on the bell tower. He quickly realizes that this is a keyhole so he whips out Joker's Wild and aims it right at the keyhole. With a beam of light and a very faint clicking later, Double D lets out a sigh and calls back his weapon to rest on the ground.

"You know that looked so wrong from this angle," said Eddy.

"Oh come on Eddy! Why is it that you have to point out the bad imagery?" the smart Ed stated angrily. He lets out a long breath and presses his eyes together. "Well no matter, we got this world cover now. At least we won't be dealing with any major Heartless attacks when we come back here."

As soon as he finishes his sentence, the bell tower begins to chime, slowly beginning playing a soothing melody before bursting into a choir-like chiming. The boys and Normadomus stand in the courtyard, listening to the song of the bell tower as the time swings to noon of the day. As the song comes to its close, the bell starts to swing and gongs out the first note for the first hour gone by.

"Well, our time is up here," said Normadomus. "I think that boy genius should be done with our ship, so that means we should be ready to leave."

"Yes. Shall we gentlemen?" answered Double D, with only Eddy and Ed walking up ahead of him and the boy following suit.

Up on top of the bell tower, the form of Mask is standing right on the highest point of town, looking down at the Ed with his arms across his chest and wind blowing his coattails. The teen is standing straight up, not even faze by the wind pushing against him, as he silently perches on that stand for the time when the Eds are heading back to their ship. Once they got on board, Mask got down from his perch and begins his descent, going down slowly to prevent crushing every bone and organ in his body, and he disappears from view once touches down on the ground.

And the clock strikes thirteen...

* * *

Well, to say the least I gave it a shot with her. I know it's impossible to keep back emotions, but I did what I did and I hope you like it. (You know who I am talking to)

And I like to add – if anyone from Cartoon Network is reading this story: good luck trying to get this story down! I am one that is not fond of where things are going, with them trying to prevent the better shows from getting attention to focus on bull-crap (excluding some ideas) that shouldn't be on the station in the first place! I mean, who wants to watch some of those shows in the first place? Not you and most certainly not me!

And again, I don't mind some of the live-action shows on Cartoon Network. They are there for a particular reason you may not have thought of. Plus, I am not taking this story down because I am making fun of Snyder. Sure he doesn't have control over what airs, but he should know what the network is putting out in the first place and _**actually listen to the fans **_before even putting something like the Dudes out in the first place!

You can tell that I am going to have some fun with these guys, right?

But with that out of the way, I hope you got all of the references I made. I made a few that really stand out and few that are well-hidden, so you may want to look back through the chapter to see what you miss. I do have the official count and if you get the number right, I'll let you in on a little secret, and it's a good one as well.

And to add that one dream sequence Double D had... I will not reveal who this girl is (you can keep trying, but I am keeping my mouth shut on it), and that shadow man is indeed the main villain. Who is it? Only I know. Plus, I was intentionally going to add a Guard Armor for the Eds to fight, but I changed my mind about that and allow the boys to rest up. After all, they spent the last five chapters fighting non-stop, so this is a chance to allow them to relax.

OK, if you want to know about what Normadomus is talking about during his conversation with Lilienne halfway through the chapter, here it is: in the _Final Fantasy_ games, there's a suffix known as –ja, which is the highest you can go on your spells. If you seen what Ed is capable of doing with what I have so far, just try to image what kind of carnage he can do with a Firaja. And believe me... it's _**TOTALLY**_ not worth it!

So once again, I like for you all to review, thank you very much. Up next is a trip to the past to feature what did happen after the war...


	10. Act II, Ch 10: Time Squad

OK, so I am going to do this for this act and Act III (if I get that far), which will apply more to the story as giving a bit on some of the back history as to how everything came to be. At least this beats translating the entire guide that Japan didn't export that can help us with the missing plot holes.

So for this chapter, I am keeping the theme of where I am going with this act, but the show that I am doing is coming out of Cartoon Network BEFORE the re-imagining, and man... when you are reading this, this will probably break the rating for this story. Trust me: the radar Cartoon Network had before the current one got murdered badly because of this show. And you'll understand shortly.

Oh and I get to blow up a world! And you're going to love me for the world that I am going to blow up. ... Now it only can be said about in real-life...

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Ten – A Stretch in Time

OOO

The Ed boys are now approaching their ship, with the clock striking noon in Traverse Town, and they can see the body of Dexter emerging from the hull of the ship. As they got closer to their ship, they can see that the boy genius is stopping to talk to another boy in the area. The Eds can see that the boy knows Dexter quite a bit and this is making the boys interested into knowing what they are talking about. They approach the two talking boys to listen in, only for Dexter to catch a glimpse of them approaching.

"Oh, it's you three," he said.

"Greetings Dexter," replied Double D. "Are you finished with installing that Gummi block?"

"Indeed. I just finished placing it a minute ago and I am heading back to my lab to continue my project," Dexter said, taking his glasses off to clean them. "There's one thing that you should know about the block that I put it. That should get you to the next set of worlds that is in this sector of the universe. I would have given you a longer range block, but that is going to take me some time to get my hands on that."

"That's all right," the smart Ed said. "As long as we're not visiting the same old worlds again, we're happy with what we got."

"And what about the map?" asked Eddy. "We've been traveling to three worlds already without the help of a map and now you want to travel into unknown territory without one?"

"Look, I'm a very busy genius here," the redhead said, placing his glasses back on. "I have other projects that I need to get done here, you know?"

The boy standing next to Dexter lets out a stern cough, reminding him that the boy is standing there, and Dexter lets a sigh in return. "Eds, this here is Otto," he said. "He's an acquaintance of mine and a bit of a genius when it comes to everything in history."

The boy that is Otto is about the size of Dexter, with him wearing a pair of thick-rimmed glasses like the boy genius', but round in design. The boy is wearing a blue shirt over a pair of brown shorts, long white socks, and black shorts. Otto has a mat of brown hair on top of his round hair, and he is giving off a warm smile similar to Ed's, but is not showing off his teeth.

"Please to meet you all," said Otto, extending his hand to be shaken.

"Well, it is great to meet you," said Double D, reaching out to shake Otto's hand.

"Say, aren't you the one that wields the Keyblade?"

The smart Ed gives the boy a curious stare as he returns his hand back to his body. "Why yes. Yes I am," he replied. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, we're in need of your help in this one assignment," begins Otto, "and with you here, that makes our job a lot easier than chasing you across the universe!"

"But why do you need my help?"

"It has to do with getting TOM's ship back from Father and his army of Ice Cream Men," answered Otto. "We figure that since we're going to need some help in getting back what TOM needed, we need you and your friends to help us out."

"And what's in it for us?" asked Eddy.

"Did someone say ice cream?" Ed pitched.

"The Ice Cream Men are a group of men dressed very similar to how Stormtoopers are, and they aren't the kind of ice cream men that you see giving out your normal ice cream bars to us kids," explained Dexter. "They service more to adults, but more to Father and his side, meaning that whenever they are in town, we kids luck out."

"My, that doesn't sound like a bunch of friendly folks," said Double D.

"But if we do succeed in this mission, at least we can tell TOM on how to reclaim his ship and have him go after Father," Otto said, adding in on the conversation.

"Wait... wouldn't it be easier if we go in and take them down ourselves?" asked Eddy.

"I'll explain it on the way back to our base," said Otto, motioning for the Eds to follow him.

The three Eds look at each other, wondering if they should follow him, and they all agree to follow the boy to know what exactly is going on. As they are walking away, Dexter takes his toolbox and heads back to where he is staying, all to get back to work on whatever he is busy with, leaving the door to the _Midnight Hummer_ open for people to waltz in. The Eds notice that they are heading towards a new section of Traverse Town, to where there are more residential buildings and few businesses, save for a few wandering merchants pushing carts full of goods to sell.

As the four boys are walking, Otto begins to explain that he is part of a group called Time Squad that specializes in traveling to different eras of time to fix any sort of anomaly that goes awry. Double D points out that in doing so will cause some alteration in the time-space continuum, but Otto replies to this saying that the anomaly will be from someone choosing a different career and in result will lose a certain product in the present time. Eddy find this somewhat interesting as he is not much for history, but without some of the things he lives with, he could be living a different life today.

Ed is... well, Ed.

The four finally approach the facility that the Time Squad Otto is on is located. The building itself is nothing special in design as there are rooms above the main level to show signs of residential living conditions and a large glass window with "Time Squad" painted onto. All four enter through the door and once inside, they can see that the main room is vastly empty, all to save for a desk, a chair and a man reading the newspaper.

The Eds are left to wander the empty space to wonder why there is no other furnishing in this room as Otto approaches the desk to place his hands on the counter. "Hey Larry, I got the Keyblader with me," he said.

The man removes the newspaper from his face, revealing himself to be a robot, bronze in armor, thin in design in compare to the robots of TOM's team, blue eyes and a permanent frown on the robot's face. He is looking at the boy with an unease look, but this is due to the robot being built like so. "So... you found the boy, did you?" the robot asked, setting aside the paper.

"Yep. There's the Keyblader right there," said Otto, pointing to Double D.

The smart Ed hears his name being called and he pivots to face the robot. "Please to meet you," he answered. "I say, you are quite a fine specimen."

"Why thank you," the robot responded, getting up from his seat. "My name is Larry 3000, but you can call me Larry for short."

"Well, it is a pleasure meeting you," the Ed said, offering his hand to shake. "So tell us, what exactly is our role in this mission of yours?"

"Well you see..."

Before Larry can start his explaining, the door leading to the back room of this building slams open and out bursts a large muscular man. He is a very tall man, barely squeezing right through the door without cracking the edges, and yet his muscular body got right through. The man is wearing a gray suit in design of a uniform, with some areas of his suit black as his gloves, boots and pants, and he has a mask covering most of his head. What is exposed is a pair of yellow goggles covering his eyes and a stubble beard on his massive chin.

And the man is wearing a pink apron while holding a hot tray of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

Eddy and Double D look dumbfound at the large man standing before them, confused by the situation given to them, as the man lowers the tray down to their level. "Want some?" he asked.

"Don't mind if I do," said Ed, taking at least half of the cookies.

Eddy decides to take a sample for himself, lifting one hot cookie from the tray and taking a bite down on the sweet delight. As he is chewing, Larry 3000 lets out an irritated moan and he shifts back over to Double D to continue with his conversation.

"As I was trying to say, we got the job from TOM asking for our service to go back in time and learn a bit about what Father is planning and hope to relay this data to you and TOM."

"So you want us to come with you to learn what Father is up to?" questioned Double D. "Then why can't you just go by yourselves and get it that way?"

"There's a problem with that plan," the muscle man said. "You see, we're not that much onto defending ourselves."

"Well Tuddrussel here has a very itchy trigger finger and willing to blast everything on sight," Larry pointed out. "However, that isn't enough against Father and his Ice Cream soldiers. Not to mention those three beings Father has at his beck and call..."

"You mean Prankster and Zip-fly?" said Normadomus. "We took care of Blitzer now and... oh, I forgot."

"Yes, as we are heading back into the past," Otto stated. "This is before you guys came here and some time after the war."

"And like I said, we are up against a man with fire for powers, a maniacal Heartless, a cold-killing Nobody, a shark-like wolf, and an army of men dressed in ice-cream armor," the robot said. "How can a muscle man with a trigger finger, a robot that wasn't programmed to fight and a kid compete with that?"

"You can take kung-fu classes," Ed randomly pitched.

"Yeah, but we got a deadline to meet," said the man Tuddrussel. "We need to get into the past, steal whatever TOM asked us to steal, get some information about what Father is trying to do and get out."

"Wait, steal?" parroted Double D. "Are you going back into the past to steal something?"

"According to TOM, it is a valuable tool that he needs to complete his security here in Traverse Town," answered Larry. "I have no idea what it is, but we're going to find out eventually."

"So why are we standing around here?" Eddy whines. "Can't we just leave and get this over with?"

"Once I set the time period to seven months ago, we should be all set to go," said Otto, adjusting the watch that is on his arm to get everything set. "There we go. Now huddle up and get ready to face off against some Ice Cream Men."

The Eds got up close to the robot and Tuddrussel as Otto jumps up onto the large man's shoulder and pushes down on his watch. In an instant, the room flashes up in a bright light as all six of them disappear into thin air and causing the doors to flap open from the force. People outside did not even defend themselves from the blow and once it is over, they continue on with their daily lives as if it never happen.

OOO

Somewhere out in space, a large spaceship is slowly cruising along at a leisurely pace, as the ship itself is very long in design. The ship, known as the _Absolution_, is sailing through a certain part of the main section of the universe, exploring the possibilities of what these worlds have to store as the residents inside this ship want to raid these worlds all for one common goal. Those the ship seems peaceful, Father made sure to add more weaponry to the _Absolution's_ current stock, making it a much larger threat.

This is Time Squad's target, and they got inside of the hull to be safe from the hazards of space. They enter the same way they left Traverse Town, with only luck on their side as there are no guards visible to notice them coming. Once the light dims, the Eds stumble around for a bit before finally collecting themselves and turning to focus on the squad.

"OK first off, why are we here?" asked Eddy, pointing to the sign reading "Weapon's Closet."

Otto squints to read the lettering on the sign, seeing that it is hard to read in little light and finally notices what the greedy Ed is saying. "Oh right..." he said, looking down on his watch. "Yeah, this thing is only good on traveling through time. It's not very accurate when it comes to landing in certain spots."

"And another thing is since you want to come out here, why not use your ship?" Double D asked, throwing in a good question.

"Well our ship was totaled a while back and it's in the shop for the time being," Tuddrussel answered.

"But you could have asked us to give you a lift."

"But for what reason?"

"We do have a new upgrade to our ship that can allow us to travel farther into the universe," the smart Ed answered, responding to Larry's question.

"Again, for what reason?" the robot replied. "In case you don't know, the ship does move and you won't know exactly where it is. This is the exact location where the _Absolution_ is according to TOM, so if we have that, then we can travel to it."

"But I thought the kid said you guys aren't good on locations," the small Ed pointed out.

"I mean on a precise location, not a region," Otto answered. "If that were the case, we'll be outside in space, struggling for air."

The greedy Ed begins to ponder this over and realizes what the boy is saying. If that was the case, the group will be struggling (minus Larry 3000) for air and will be compressed into small balls of matter thanks to the thing known as the vacuum of space. With a disturbing thought in his head, the small Ed shakes it out of him as he remembers recalling the little incident from earlier with Tuddrussel and him wearing that pink apron.

"Oh that..." he started. "Well... it's just a one time deal. Every guy goes through one of those moments."

"And I was wondering the same thing," Larry said n a deadpan tone. "Now I need to go wash that thing once we get back."

Truddrussel decides to get back to the mission by pulling out a gun and blasting the door from its hinges. The few shots needed got the door to rocket across the hallway and make a large amount of noise, but nothing is coming down the hallway or sirens going off. After making sure that no one is coming, the group carefully strolls out from the closet to get more room to stretch. They give one final look around the area to make sure that they are not being followed or noticed, so they begin to formulate a plan.

"All right, so what we have in mind is to go find that one artifact that TOM asked us to get," said Otto in a whisper tone, "while you three go learn what find Father and learn what he is up to."

"And why can't you guys go follow Father?" asked Eddy.

"Because Buck here can't keep his finger off of the trigger and that'll be a bad thing when it comes to peeping in on a conversation," Larry responded.

"It's true," answered Truddrussel. "This trigger finger of mine needs a good itching now and then."

"But then, we aren't the exact kind of people that is good at stealth missions," the smart Ed pointed out. "Eddy here can be loud at times and Ed... well, he is what he is."

"Cookie anyone?" the tall Ed asked, holding out one of the cookies he saved from earlier.

Everyone denies the offer and Ed stuffs the cookie into his mouth as the others got back to their conversation. "But still, this'll give us the chance to kill two birds with one stone, right?" said Otto. "We can handle getting what TOM needs while you guys cover Father."

"I guess, but that means we..."

"Well will you look at the time," Truddrussel said. "We need to get cracking here! Let's meet up somewhere near the docking stations, all right?"

The Eds agree with this and they watch Time Squad split off to go find whatever they need to retrieve. Now the Eds are standing there wondering what to do next, since they have no clue as to where to go next due to that they have no knowledge of the ship's layout. They are basically wandering through a maze inside of a large ship, all in the name of finding a being that is capable of defeating them with fire and his traveling companions. This is not what the Eds have in mind of going out.

Eddy notices something from behind the blown-out door and the Eds walk up to lift the door up. What lies underneath is an unconscious Ice Cream soldier, dazed from getting hit from the door, and the boys decide to check his armor for any sort of help that can get them through this ship. Luckily the man has a map on him in case he got lost and Double D offers to take the map so that the boys do not lose it.

"All right, we should be in this hallway right next to this supply closet," the Ed said, placing his finger on the map. "If we want to find Father, I suggest that we search the bridge and perhaps Father's personal quarters."

"Since when does a ship have a bridge?" asked Ed.

"A bridge is usually a place where the main control of the ship is," Double D explained. "It will make sense if Father is there, since he is the one that controls the ship."

"But what about his living area?" asked Eddy, walking up to take a look at the map.

"Well, it shouldn't be far from here. All we need is to head down this hallway to get up to the intersection, take a left and just keep walking until we find it."

Double D rolls up the map and places it inside of his jacket, and the boys begin their journey to find out Father's plan. Just as Eddy and Ed take their first steps, Double D spins around and is holding up two fingers. "Oh and there's something that I like to point out," he said. "Since we are in the past, I would like to state one little detail before we continue on...

"You should know that if we do anything that can result in any minor changes in this reality, it will cause the time-space continuum to warp and will bring the present that we came from to no longer exist!" the smart Ed stated, emphasizing the last line a bit. "We can't do anything so much as take a step that will result in some sort of paradox setting off in this time period that will cause the future to be totally different than when we came from! So you better be careful on what you do or else we may as well not exist at all!"

Ed and Eddy both shoot a look at each other, getting all that Double D is trying to say before giving the smart Ed the same look. With those words stuck in their heads, Double D turns around and leads the Eds off to get to the end of the hallway. Eddy leans up to Ed's ear and he begins to whisper to the tall boy.

"I wonder how long it is going to be before we make a _Back to the Future_ reference," he asked.

"I think Double D already made one," the tall Ed replied.

"No kid, that's the same principle in all time science experiments, real or fake," said Normadomus. "If we do cause some sort of change here in the past, it can result in a ripple to the time stream and will change the present to something entirely different."

"And how bad can that be?" asked the greedy Ed.

"Well it all depends on the word 'bad.' It could be a turn for good, or it may be to where things will somehow end up like a certain station that I occasionally watch."

The two Eds are left in silence for a moment to think over which television station Normadomus watches, which is strange to them for a wizard like him to watch television. "Nickelodeon?" pitched Eddy.

The hat looks up in puzzlement before looking back down on Eddy. "No, I don't believe so," he answered. "I think it was with mostly young adults and a lame excuse for music..."

"Oh, I know what you're talking about." There is another moment of silence. "At least we can show better quality stuff than what those guys can produce," said the small Ed.

Double D lets out a shush and orders the boys to hide, as a group of Ice Cream soldiers march down the hallway with ice cream guns in arms. The boys watch from their niche as the soldiers pass right by them without even noticing them. Once the men are gone, the Eds can hear the sound of a door opening and they look out to notice Father strolling out of the room, along with Prankster, Blitzer and Zip-fly. They can hear a conversation between the four, making out bits and pieces, and the boys decide to tag along to listen in on their conversation to see what they can get out of it.

"So we still don't have a location for a Keyblade?" asked Father.

"Well sir, it's impossible to say where one can be," said Blitzer. "For all we know, the Keyblade wielders are still asleep and that they can be dying, not even know that they can wield the Keyblade."

"Still, it means that they can wield a Keyblade, which is needed to do the final lock!" the shadow man stated. "If we don't have a key, then we can't unlock the lock!"

The three beings recoil in fright from Father's flames before warming back up to the man. "Father, we may not have the Keyblade in our possession, we do possess two of the Pure Hearted," said Zip-fly. "We still need to locate the other five before we should head back to Hollow Bastion."

"Yes, but why should we head back there when we have a whole universe to explore?" stated Prankster. "There are some sectors we have yet to explore and could hold the answers to our questions!"

"Exactly Prankster!" replied Father. "If a Keyblade exists in the other sectors of the universe, we should be able

"Wait, Hollow Bastion?" whispered Eddy. "Where did we hear that from?"

Ed slowly raises his hand before dropping as his hat begins to speak. "Hollow Bastion? The old cathedral and town of once former glory?" he asked. "I thought that world was inhabitable after the war."

"It was?" asked Ed.

"If there's one thing that I know, it's this," said Double D. "War. War never changes."

"True," answered Ed's hat. "Now I want to know about Hollow Bastion."

The boys continue on to tail right behind the enemy all before coming up to a pair of sliding doors and entering the bridge of the ship. The bridge itself is very large and comprise of several seats with Ice Cream soldiers manning each computer. The Eds take this opportunity to duck behind one computer and use this as a personal hiding spot for the time being, and they can

"So we know that the rest of the Pure Hearted are here in the main sector," said Father, "but what we don't know is the location for each one of them."

"Correct," answered Zip-fly. "According to our previous master, he knows where each Pure Hearted lies, but he didn't remember where these worlds were located."

"And that's where I come in," Blitzer said, stepping in. "Using my acute sense of smell, I can track down those Pure Hearted and have the exact location of each one of them in no time."

"But we do have an entire universe to explore," said Father. "That will take us forever to find each and every one of those..."

"Sir, a world is coming up," an Ice Cream soldier stated, looking up from the radar he is stationed at.

"Bring it up," ordered Father.

The soldier did what he is told and got the image on screen, showing a world for everyone to see. The world itself is a large town, comprising of several different houses, but one is standing out against the rest. Blitzer is letting a loud snarl, Prankster is gripping onto his staff, and Zip-fly takes a hand and morphs it into a katana.

"I don't understand, but there's something about that world that makes me... angry," said Zip-fly.

"Same here," snarls Blitzer. "I just want to go there and tear everything up."

"Now, now my children, there are better ways in dealing with this sort of thing," said Father. "Now Blitzer, can you sense any signs of a Pure Hearted or a Keyblade on this world?"

The said wolf begins to sniff the air, trying to get any readings about the world before them before lowering his head. "There's nothing that I am getting, only except anger," he said. "I detect no signs of a Keyblade or a Pure Hearted anywhere. All I can sense is stupidity... and hatred."

"What is with this hatred?" asked Father.

"I guess it's has to do with the fact that many people in this universe hates this world so much that they want to destroy it," explained Zip-fly. "But from I know, there tends to be some sort of magic that is protecting this world, leaving them safe from the crushing pressure that is hatred."

"Aw man and I want to take all of that hatred and use it to crush this world!" stated Prankster. "Please Father, can I blow up this world? Please, please, please?"

Father props his head onto a fist, twisting away from the Heartless so that he can not focus on the being. But Prankster continues to beg to blow up the world, even going as far as getting up into the man's face and begging right in front of him. Father reacts to this in shock and spinning around in his chair, only to have Prankster back up in his face and continuing to beg, as if he is only running on the single breath of air. Father can not take anymore of this as he removes his head from his fist and slams that fist down onto the arm of the chair.

"All right, enough already!" he boomed. "You can blow up this world for your guilty pleasure!"

Prankster lets out a cheer in excitement, follow by his usual laughter. "Oh don't worry Father; I'll make sure to give you the best explosion I can come up with!"

The shadow man waves off the ghost, telling him to do his business, and the Heartless leaves chuckling. The Eds duck behind where they are hiding to make sure not to get notice by the Heartless and they emerge once the ghost is gone. The boys look over the wall to notice Father facing out into space at the world before them, getting data on the screen and an image of a woman appearing before them. The woman herself is a very attractive woman with a more futuristic design, and she has a bluish tone to her appearance, and there is nothing else to describe from where the Eds are hiding.

"**Father Sir, are you certain about destroying this world**?" she asked. "**I know that this world is hated but this doesn't give you the right to destroy it**."

"I know but this is not my problem," the man replied. "If you want to prevent this world from being destroyed, you need to talk to Prankster about that, and you know how he can be sometimes."

"**Yes, but you do realize that I have full control over this ship and can disable you from allowing Prankster to use his spell to destroy this world**?"

"True, but I do have control over your actions," Father retorted, "so if you dare interfere with this, I swear I will get someone to rewire you and make you more obedient to every last one of my orders."

The woman retracts back in fear, as she knows what Father is capable of doing. She knows that this ship was run differently in the hands of TOM when he was in control, and that is how she likes it. But with Father in control, she is restricted from doing any sort of thing, as the Ice Cream Men can control anything on the ship without her help and Father can dictate what to do with a single gesture and a stern voice. Even if she tries to rebel against them, it will only result in a hardware crash and part of her memory deleted.

That means... no memories of TOM...

"**I understand**," the woman replied, submitting into Father's will. "**I will allow Prankster to do his deed and destroy this world**." With that, she disappears from view and Father got himself comfortable in his chair.

"Excellent," he coos. "Now all that is missing is some popcorn and we got ourselves a show!"

"It'll only be a few more minutes before the ticking time bomb known as Prankster's Surprise destroys that world," said Blitzer. "I'm worry about that move of his destroying this ship."

"You worry too much," said Zip-fly. "Why can't you be more relaxed and mellow?"

"Don't you think that trusting your life in the hands of Heartless that can potentially turn this entire ship belly side up in the matter of seconds worries you even for a bit?" the wolf asked. "Knowing you, you shouldn't trust that maniac whatsoever."

"So? I know about the feud between the Heartless and us Nobodies," the Nobody replied, "but that doesn't excuse me from not allowing Prankster to do whatever he pleases."

"Except of course taking over the ship and blowing it up," Father chimed in. "SARA here will prevent that sort of thing from happening, is that right?"

"**Indeed**," the woman responding, identifying herself to be SARA. "**I will make sure that Prankster does not cause any sort of damage to this ship. And speaking of which, the Heartless is beginning his attack now**."

"_I hope you guys are ready for this_," the voice of Prankster said over the intercom. "_I wanted to let out a big version of this spell for a while now, and now I am getting the chance to let it rip_!"

Everyone in the room begin to talk up a storm over the excitement that is about to happen. The Eds look over from their cover to watch as the action unfolds, as SARA appears once again and a countdown appears on the monitors. "**Countdown until firing in T-minus 15 seconds**," the woman said, as the seconds behind her tick away.

Everyone watches the monitor with excitement burning in their eyes as the seconds pass away, counting down to the initial launch of the ghost's ultimate special. As zero draws near, the Ice Cream Men pitch in on the countdown, repeating the numbers on screen as the final digit draws near. Once the two, one disappears, the magic number flashes on the screen and a loud chuckle cracks through the intercom.

"_Fire away_!" shouted Prankster.

Nothing is going on at the moment, as everybody is waiting in anticipation for something to happen. Seconds went by as they did in the countdown, with nothing happening during this time. And then, the world before them slowly begins to give away and reveal a massive black sphere. There are signs of a purple glow circling the sphere, as pieces of the world startle to crumble and suck into the sphere, only to be never seen from again.

The Ice Cream Men are shouting in joy over the latest success of the Prankster's Surprise, with even Father grinning under his shadowy suit. As for the Eds, they are shock over such sheer power it took to destroy one world, and that same sort of magic caused their world to fall in the same matter.

"He... He blew up the world?" Double D stated. "But why?"

"Sir, it appears that there are some survivors leaving in an escape pod," a soldier said. "Should we shoot?"

Father looks at the soldier that questioned him before shifting over to Zip-fly. The Nobody understands what Father wants and he turns to the exit and heads out of the cockpit. The Eds got into their hiding spot, making sure that Zip-fly does not notice them, and the Nobody passes right by and out the door. Only to check the coast is clear, the Eds slip back out to hear about the situation.

"Incoming transmission," one solder stated. "It's coming from the escape pod. Should we respond?"

"No, leave it," Father replied. "It is for the best that we don't hear their cries of help."

"I understand."

"But... but they destroyed a world," jabbered Double D. "Why on earth are they so cruel?"

"It is human nature," replied Normadomus. "We humans tend to be cruel to others. It is just a simple fact of life. Plus I remember something along the lines of that world not being so liked in the first place."

"Is it the one with the brother acting like a guinea pig for his mad scientist sisters, who are trying to win over an idiotic neighbor, all while living under a house with a father who can't cook anything else than a meatloaf and a mother who works out of town, along with a rip-off of Area 51 which is home to a really dumb military and two Secret Service agents that are terrible at their jobs, with the addition of some really bad villains of a very chubby child with some affection to one of the mad scientists, a talking cat with a butler, a mad freezing scientists, and a toymaker that crossed the lines too many times, and a dog that can also talk and drinks coffee and everyone in the world is completely stupid into believing that the dog is a kid with a rare hair disorder when in reality is just a dog?"

Everyone stares at Ed, surprised that he summarized a world that he strangely knows about all in one breath. "Uh... that sounds about right," said Normadomus.

Ed's smile turns into a frown. "Yeah, I never liked that world either," he said before switching back to a smile.

"That was all one sentence Ed, right?" asked Double D.

"What?"

"Go figures," said Eddy. "He forgets everything while explaining that in one-go."

"I'm amazed by how well he knows of that world," said the hat.

"Well Ed does have a thing for science fiction so maybe he spends his free time exploring the universe for possible alien life," explained the smart Ed.

"And this is probably one of the times when I felt sad in my life," the tall Ed said, hanging his head low. "But now I feel better."

They can feel the faint rumbling of an explosion, which might have come from either Prankster or Zip-fly and in which the target this time is the escape pod. After a few minutes, both the Heartless ghost and the Nobody got back on the deck, walking and floating up to where Father is before turning to the screen.

"So everything went according to plan?" he asked.

"Yes it did," replied Zip-fly. "We made sure that no survivors are left. Prankster took their hearts and ate them, and I made sure that there is nothing left for any Heartless or Nobody to form."

"And allow me to say that those hearts were downright revolting!" said Prankster in a disgusted tone. "I had a few bad hearts during my time, but those hearts were just... blech!"

"I can understand," Father replied. "I was once a child and I never liked the taste of my veggies. So are you certain that there are no signs of any unwanted Heartless or Nobodies?"

"Positive. If there were to be Heartless, they will be growing inside of Prankster, and I don't think that they'll survive in there for a long period," said Zip-fly. "As for the Nobodies... I made sure that if there are any signs of them, I won't be seeing them whenever I return home."

"Then that is good to hear," said Father. He spins around in his chair to focus on his Ice Cream Soldiers. "Men, is there another world that holds the keys we need to find our goal?"

"Father, there is somewhere that I wanted to go for a while," said Prankster. "It is somewhere far off and it doesn't have either a Pure Hearted or a Keyblade."

"Then what good will traveling to this world will do?"

"It has to do with the fact of that world housing a Tainted," the Heartless said. "A being that is corrupted by the darkness and has only shadows lying within the heart."

"A Tainted?" echoed everyone, including the Eds.

"It is exactly the opposite of a Pure Hearted, who is born out of pure light," Prankster explained. "Tainted are people who are born out of pure darkness, which is much rarer than those of Pure Hearted. If there are seven Pure Hearted in this universe, then there is one Tainted that exists in this universe."

"So what you are saying there is this one person on this world that can help us?" asked Father, now getting interested.

"Probably. The true nature of the Tainted is still unknown, but if we can get this person to join us, we shall be an unstoppable force!" stated Prankster. "We will be all powerful, and with our combination, there is nothing that can stop us!"

"Prankster, are you going insane again?" asked Blitzer. "It appears that you are and you know where that leads to."

"I know, but where's the fun in that?"

"Still, Prankster does put up a good point Blitzer," said Father. "If we have this Tainted join us, then it will make it possible to achieve Kingdom Hearts faster than collecting the Purest Seven!"

Every soldier that is in the cockpit begin to cheer very loudly, shouting their enthusiasm

"Tainted... Purest Seven... Kingdom Hearts?" mumbles Double D. "What does all that mean?"

A soft crackling noise begins to emit from where the Eds are at and they all look to notice that Double D's watch is making the noise. "_Hey guys, are you done yet?_" asked the voice of Otto, keeping his tone low knowing that the Eds are hiding. "_Our time is up here and we need to get going_."

"Don't worry, we'll be on our way," Double D replied, also keeping his voice low.

"_Well you better do it quick or else we're going to leave you behind!_" boomed Tuddrussel.

With the loud voice of Truddrussel echoing off of the walls of the bridge, the Eds look in horror as they notice Ice Cream Men, Father and the three beings staring where they are hiding. The boys look at each other and they scramble for the exit, stumbling on the way out of the bridge as the soldiers got out of the seats and grab their weapons. Father jumps up from his seat, flames surrounding his body and his anger boiling mad.

"AFTER THEM!" he bellowed, ordering for all of his soldiers to chase down the Ed boys.

With sirens blaring, the Eds are hurrying down the hallway with each struggling to keep on running as they can hear the sound of stomping right behind them. Normadomus throws up a Reflectara to block the hallway, stopping one group of soldiers dead in their tracks as the boys turn at an intersection to get away from said group. As they enter this hallway, they take notice of a new group of Ice Cream Men and Ed's hat throws up another Reflectara to block the new wave as the Eds backtrack to get away.

With the hallway they are in now getting full with soldiers, the Eds take another turn to get away from all of them. Now the ship is rocking from outbursts of Father, and they can feel a warm breeze filling up the hallway. With this new air filling in their lungs, the boys are slowing down and breathing heavily, and large drops of sweat drip down the side of their hot faces.

"It's no use," pants Double D. "We'll never make it to the docking station if we keep this up."

"Is there something that we can use to get there quickly?" whines Eddy.

Ed's hat begins to think this over, wondering what they can use to help them get out of this situation. Once it hits him, he unhinges his jaw and jumps up from Ed's head in excitement. "Use Haste, one of you!" he shouted. "It's the only way to get us away from these men!"

Ed got out his staff and he tries real hard to pull of the spell, thinking of what to do to get the spell to work. As he is thinking, a white light begins to glow on the tip of Ed's staff and the boys can feel a surge of energy flowing through them. With this new energy, the Ed boys take off from where they are and rocket down the hallways all the way to the docking station, zipping right pass guards and knocking them down. The boys did not stop to take a look at where they are going. All they care about is getting to the rendezvous point and get off of this ship.

The Time Squad of Larry 3000, Buck Truddrussel and Otto are waiting by the door going into the docking station, waiting patiently for the Eds to arrive. As they are waiting, they notice a blur heading right towards them and the large man prepares his gun in defense, only to notice the blur slowing down and revealing itself to be the Eds. The boys come to a stop, sliding to a halt as they came close to knocking into the Time Squad and knocking them over. Once the Eds realize where they are, they look at the squad and flash some smiles.

"What the heck is going on?" stated Truddrussel. "The second we left the room we were in, sirens are going off!"

"There's no time to explain," rushed Double D. "All that matters is

"Well, I guess it's time to head back to the future," Larry said, setting in the destination time and location.

"Hey, he made a reference!" stated Eddy.

"Eddy, I'm sure that saying the title of a movie doesn't count as a reference," the smart Ed said.

"But they say it all the time in the movies, so why not?" the greedy Ed questioned. "It's called a title drop."

"That may be true, but I believe that should be disqualified for use as a reference."

"I don't know. Say, didn't we get into trouble with saying stuff about this sort of thing?"

"Yes I believe we did. I think it was another project we tried during the summer, but it turned out to be a big bust thanks to some annoying person." There is silence for a moment. "No offense Eddy."

"I know," Eddy replied. "The only thing that I can say about that is... the Truth sucks."

Everyone nods in agreement over this statement, as the ship rocks again with another violent burst of anger from Father. Without thinking, everyone huddles together and Larry punches in on their destination, causing a bright light to consume them and sending them all back into the future. Once the light dims, an army of Ice Cream soldiers storm into the intersection and Father bursts through the crowd to note nothing in the meeting point of the hallway.

"Sir, SARA is missing from her containment," one soldier stated. "Should we go after the intruders?"

The shadow man takes a look at the location where the Eds and Time Squad once stood and turns to face the Ice Cream Man. "No," he answered. "We need to focus our attention on finding the rest of the Pure Hearted. Once we got them, we'll focus on finding the Keyblade and then those intruders..."

OOO

A bright flash of light appears inside of the Time Squad building, filling up the room with the light before dimming down and revealing the group of six. The six look around frantically, making sure that there are no signs of any Ice Cream soldiers that managed to hitch a ride with them. Luckily no one stray into the time stream with them, and the Eds hurry to the window to notice no subtle change to their present.

Truddrussel unveils what the item they have been assigned to seek, revealing a disk that is shining brightly under the lights in the room. The squad explains that the disk holds the information that is needed to revive SARA and upload her here in Traverse Town. With that said, the large man hands the disk over to Otto and the boy rushes out of the building to go deliver the disk to TOM.

"So all of this time it was after some program?" asked Eddy.

"Not so much a program but more an artificial intelligence program," said Larry. "You should understand this if you know your computers."

"Well now, at least TOM should be happy now," said Double D. "We should be on our way now. We do need to find the other children and find these Pure Hearted now."

The boys make their way to the door, all before the smart Ed stops in his tracks and turns to face the remaining members of Time Squad. "I have to ask… where exactly is Hollow Bastion?" he asked.

"That place? If you're looking for it, you're going to need a heavy-duty Transporting block if you want to go to that world," said Truddrussel. "Otherwise, it's not worth the trip by Gummi ship."

"All right, thanks for the info." With that, the Eds made their way out of the building and back to their ship to continue on with their journey.

"I don't know about this," said Eddy. "The one second we come back here and we got more questions that needs answers."

"Yes. As to what exactly is the Purest Seven and what is Kingdom Hearts?" the smart Ed ponders.

"Kingdom Hearts… that name rings a bell," said Normadomus.

"Oh, and I have to ask. Why are you watching TV when you look like the kind that don't?" asked the small Ed.

"Well if you must know, it's all in the name of research," the hat answered. "As a man who loves to study, I want to know how today's society is by learning a bit on what they watch. Apparently all I can find is nothing but useless programming that seems more like deteriorating the minds of the young, and only a few shows that are well entertaining."

"And whose said that TV will rot your mind?" said Double D. "A little research can get you far in life, correct?"

"And that's why I watch all of those movies," Ed pitched.

"They certainly do come in handy for all of our adventures. Now gentleman, let us continue on with our journey through this majestic universe of ours and keep our search progressing, shall we?"

With a nod from the others, the Eds board the _Midnight Hummer_ and close the door behind them. After a few moments, the ship roars to life and sails away from Traverse Town to go off into the vastness of space. With a flick of the switch, the flames from the thrusters change colors and the Gummi ship zips pass by the worlds of older years to travel on to some newer worlds.

* * *

And now... a moment of silence for _Johnny Test_... *a nanosecond later* _**YEAH RIGHT!**_

Plus, I got one moment in to get back at a flamer who decided to wreck the previous story to this. I want to say to that person . . . UP YOURS!

That being said, there is a good reason for me blowing up Johnny Test's world and leaving Dukey alive. Reason being: for those who watch the show, Dukey is the _only __**one**_ that has **ANY** sort of logic whatsoever on the show and for me destroying the world... it's terrible. Plus, they made fun of Dr. Seuss. My God... they did it. They ruin Dr. Seuss. I'm going to flip out now...

(insert five minutes of sheer anger being release here)

*takes a couple of breaths* OK, that aside, I'm surprised that I got through this chapter. Allow me to say that I am not one against homosexuality (I'll show my support to them unless one asked me out), but when I was researching for this show... you do NOT want to know how many moments are there in _Time Squad_. Seriously, there's a reason for some of the shows to be what they are... well, until _Flapjack_ came in and scared the crap out of the radar and then _Adventure Time_ came along and did so many things wrong with that radar to the point of complete and utterly destroying it, which leaves _Regular Show_ (and the new _Robotomy_) to get away with just about _anything_!

Yep, this is Cartoon Network. And that's the way we like it.

OK, I want to say this calmly, but I did summarize _Johnny Test_ in one go. Thank you Ed, you shall receive something special and it will make you happy. Too bad you need to wait three more chapters for it. And don't worry Eddy, I got something for you too. And Double D... you need to wait a lot longer for yours.

And I want to point something out: if there is ever going to be a sequel linear to this story, I want to cover a bit on the Tainted. You obviously know who I am talking about if you ever grew up watching Cartoon Network, and believe me... I know she is perfect; she does _**NOT**_ belong in this story. ... But maybe for a possible villain later.

. . . To say the least: I'm weird.

So once again, I like for you to review. Up next we shall begin the Millennium Act with a blast from the past and some good robot carnage! Oh, and if your name just so happens to be the Truth... you better be careful what you write. Rule 13, remember that!


	11. Act II, Ch 11: Jersey City

OK, enough delaying... it's time to begin this age of darkness by kicking off things in the time before the retooling of Cartoon Network... and I shall begin with a bang! Oh yes, our first world in this act will be very much a good start for this act and plus, I even adding in some nostalgia for this as this has been removed from Cartoon Network's site!

... Yep, Snyder is a smart man, is he?

But really, this is another first in crossovers, as this sets things up for another EEnE/(insert series here). But as for action... hmmm... well, you're about to find out in a few sentences.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Eleven – The Bright Side of Jersey

OOO

With the thrusters roaring and now into new territory, the Eds are looking out into the vastness of space with the same look as before. Now they lack the knowledge about the region they are in, but with the guidance of the radar pointing them to the direction of another child, they are not really lost. The blip slowly fades out and in, telling them that the signal is weak but there is someone out here in this part of the universe. Eddy leans back in his seat and kicks his feet up onto the dashboard, taking out his remaining yo-yo and toss it for a bit as Double D studies the surroundings around him.

"So what do you think is out here?" asked the small Ed.

"I'm not sure Eddy. As far as I know, there can be worlds that are far more hostile than the previous worlds we visited, and even to where the residents will attack upon landing."

The greedy Ed ponders over this idea, thinking that the excitement will be a change of pace from the Heartless, but it will not be pleasant to come to a new world and be label as a threat immediately. "But then... what about coming to a world that doesn't have any Heartless and we just end up walking onto the keyhole?"

"Kid, there isn't a world out there that doesn't have any Heartless," stated Normadomus, as Ed is walking up to the controls. "As far as I know, every inhabitable planet has Heartless and there will be unless no one exists on the planet."

"Of course! The Heartless were once humans and if aren't any people, then there are no Heartless," said Double D. "So far the only world that doesn't have any Heartless was that one world Blitzer send us to, but for all we know there could be a civilization there."

"That may be true, but I want to talk about what we overheard," Ed's hat said. "Apparently Father is looking for the Purest Seven, a group of the seven Pure Hearted in this universe. But then he is also seeking a Tainted for an odd reason."

"What does a Tainted has to do with the Pure Hearted?" asked Eddy.

"If I can figure what we heard, a Tainted's power is similar to having all seven Pure Hearted combine, but for what purpose is unknown."

"What about Kingdom Hearts?" Ed wonders.

"Kingdom Hearts... yes. Maybe the three are connected in some way. But to what?"

"A lock, perhaps?" pitched the smart Ed.

Everyone begins to question this as Double D went into explaining. "I had this dream back when we first came here, about something to do with the Keyblade, the final lock, a door, evil and the Destroyer. I can figure that the Keyblade is needed to undo the lock to a door, but to what door? And what does the evil and the Destroyer parts mean?"

"Maybe it is some sort of evil mastermind who goes around the universe conquering planets after planet all in the search of ultimate power," Ed rambles. "As he conquers these worlds, he leaves a trail of destruction behind for the people of these worlds and he is crowned the emperor of them all, and everyone bows before him as the Destroyer of Worlds!"

This time around, there is silence among the group, wondering about what to say before Eddy chirps in. "Ed, you have been reading way too many fan-fictions," he said.

"What's a fan-fiction?" the tall Ed questions.

"Eddy, you're forgetting that Ed doesn't have access to the Internet at home," Double D pointed out. "It's going to be hard for him to read those kind of stories when all he has are comic books and TV."

"But going back to your dream, it could be that your Keyblade is needed to seal the final lock to the doors of Kingdom Hearts," explained Normadomus, "probably to prevent the evil of the Destroyer from getting his hands on what lies behind the door."

"That may be a strong possibility," the smart Ed responded, "but what exactly does the final picture resembles?"

"Didn't Ed's hat explained that already?" replied Eddy.

"Yes, but my dream could be interpreted by a different meaning. It could be more of a warning, telling us that we should be aware of this Destroyer and what potential evil that he has, and he could be seeking my Keyblade all in hopes of undoing the final lock and open the door to Kingdom Hearts!"

Eddy shoots a blank stare, rising up a hand to scratch his head. "Yeah, this is just too confusing to talk about."

The radar begins to pick up on an enemy coming up from behind and Eddy walks over to his station to see if it is the mysterious Gummi ship that has been stalking them. He leans into his terminal and flips the screens, allowing them to warm up before recognizing the shape of the approaching ship. This time however, it is not the near-invisible Gummi ship. Instead, the image on the monitor is a much larger target.

"Uh… since when do pirate ships fly in space?" the small Ed asked, removing his head from his terminal.

"Only in works of fiction," replied Double D.

"We're being attack by pirates?" asked Ed excitedly.

Eddy got back into his turret terminal with everything going and he takes notice of the enemy ship's design. The ship itself resembles a pirate ship, with torn sails, aged wood and slightly rusted metal to give it an older look. There is an outline of red trimming the upper edge of the deck and down along the bow, along with two spirals of yellow paint to make the boat appear to have eyes. Along with these eyes is a large metal jaw hanging right below, closed and ready to chomp. Plus there are six exhaust pipes near the stern and four wheel-like devices hanging off the hull of the ship.

Ed got himself up into his turret and notices the ship outside before him. He grins ear to ear as he aligns the cannon up for him to take a shot, only to notice a couple of other Gummi Heartless emerging from the ship. These Heartless are taking on an appearance of dragonflies, with yellow in color and four wings beating away, and Eddy takes fire at these small Heartless. The Pirate Ship opens up its jaw and the two Eds warn Double D about the approaching snap, and his increase the thrust to get them away in time.

"Sheesh, that was close," mutters Eddy. "Hey, is there anyway that we can beat this thing?"

"Not unless we have two Gravitaga cannons, five Firaga and four Blizzaga turrets firing at the same time," replied Ed's hat. "Otherwise, we're going to need to get out of range and pray that we never see this thing again!"

"Double D, how close are we to that world?" the small Ed asked.

Double D looks over at the radar and presses a button for him to speak on the intercom. "Judging by the blip on the radar, we should be approaching the world in no time."

"Well, as long as we don't get turn into minced meat by then!"

"Eat my bombs, space pirates!" Ed shouted, shooting out one round at the ship.

The gravity shot sails through the air and explodes right in front of the front mast, causing the damaging shockwave to heave its effect down on the deck. The boat shows no sign of flinching and there appears to be lesser numbers of Gummi Heartless around the ship, meaning Ed's shot did do some damage to the ship's arsenal. However, more are appearing around the Pirate Ship and the Eds take aim at each approaching Heartless as Double D steers the ship away.

With some Heartless getting out of Eddy's firing range, they close in on the _Midnight Hummer_ but Ed intervenes by blasting these Heartless with his gravity cannon. The Pirate Ship got close to Gummi ship again and tries to take another bite at the thrusters, but Double D pushes down to get the engine running at full capacity and send them sailing. It was enough to get them away and Eddy fires one last shot at the hull to leave a small hole in the left eye of the hull. The two Eds at the turrets watch as the Pirate Ship continues to tail them, but the ship is long gone once they got enough distance between them.

Ed and Eddy got out from their terminals and notice that they are approaching the next world they are visiting, and their first world in the new sector. They can see that the world is populated with small homes and a towering buildings similar to Townsville, but one detail sticks out is that there is a large alien ship orbiting the world. All three Eds got a close look at the bow of the ship, noticing that the front resembles like a squid head, and only two Eds recoil in disgust at this site.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about that Pirate Ship," said Double D. "I wonder if these people are friendly..."

His answer results in negativity as red blips flicker on the radar and the Eds look out to notice large green robot mechs heading right for their ship. Panicking, the smart Ed presses forward and rockets into the atmosphere all in hopes of losing the robots. However, the robots are following right behind them, and the aliens on board of the spaceship orbit around to notice the mechs entering the atmosphere.

Onboard of the ship and inside of the bridge, there are several similar looking aliens working away in the same manner as the Ice Cream Men. Each one has a squid-like head and a polyp-shaped body under a robotic torso and arms, and all of them have a different shade of brown to compare with their dark green armor. One of them is sitting in a chair looking out onto the planet with his head prop onto a fist, razor teeth sticking out of his mouth, as he stares at the world with glaring red eyes. There is one brave alien standing right next to this intimating alien, looking slightly timid by being near him, and he leans in to talk to the sitting alien.

"Uh, Gorrath sir," the alien spoke.

"What is it commander?" the seated alien replied rudely in a deep voice.

"You noticed that an unknown vehicle has entered the atmosphere, followed by a couple of our soldiers, correct?"

"Yes commander, I am not a complete imbecile to not notice that!"

"Well, should we send an attack order to go after that vehicle or just let our soldiers chase them around before finding MEGAS?"

The sitting alien known as Gorrath turns away from his commander to think about the current situation, playing out the options in his head in order to decide what to do. After some thought: "Allow them to continue their pursuit," he answered. "I will not allow anyone to escape our sights, even if it is coming into this world to help out the enemy."

"Right away sir," the commander replied.

The commander disappears to go send the order down to the robots on the world, as Gorrath leans back in his chair, rapping his metal fingers together and letting out a small chuckle of evil.

OOO

As the Eds are sailing over the world, they can see that they are flying over the suburbs of whatever city they are visiting. Double D looks down towards the ground at the streets to see which one is clear for him to land their ship, and the Eds can hear the sounds of guns firing right behind them. With shots of lasers pasting right by them, Eddy heads to his terminal to see that the mechs are still following them and are now shooting at them.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me?" he whines. "It's bad that we're fighting a Heartless pirate ship, now we're dealing with robots!"

"Finally, one of my fantasies has come true!" the tall Ed blurted, getting up into his terminal.

"Well let's just hope that Ed here can get rid of these robots," Double D said, steering hard to the right to prevent getting hit by one laser. "I don't want to have a repeat of what happened back in Nowhere."

"At least we're not in the middle of nowhere," Eddy stated, pointing out a good point. "If we crash, we can find someone who can fix this up."

They can hear the sound of thunder outside of their ship, which is coming from the explosion of the gravity rounds. Eddy heads back to notice that the tall boy hit two out of the three mechs that are following them. The two that are hit begin to stagger for a bit before Eddy jumps down and fires his rounds into the armor, increasing the size of the cracks and weakening the robots even further. Once the damage is set, the boys got out and allow the two mechs to crash to the ground, and the smart Ed pinpoints a good location for them to land.

Normadomus offers to do a spell for the cannon, and Ed allows his hat to go up and shoot a magic spell through the barrel. The attack is a real Gravitaga, sending out a purple ball of magic out towards the mech and hitting at full force. The impact causes the robot to stall before shooting away in a spiral, thanks to the repelling force of the Gravitaga spell. Once they are clear of any robots, the smart Ed got the Midnight Hummer down in an open spot next to a garage, and all three Eds step out to take a look at their surroundings.

From what they are seeing, there is nothing but houses. No signs of Heartless roaming around, no signs of robots attacking from above, nothing out of the ordinary. This is a good sign for the boys as this gives them a chance to explore a new world without fighting, but the strange silence is leaving them vulnerable to an impending attack.

"So... does this mean that we can leave?" asked Eddy.

"I'm not sure," Double D replied. "Perhaps we have come on a good day."

"Hey, I spy some Heartless!" stated Ed.

The boys look down at the street to notice a couple of Shadows emerging from the pavement, crawling up from the black asphalt and blending in as the sun is beating down on them. With a chance to fight something, the Eds take out their weapons in hopes of winning a quick fight, only to see the Heartless crush underneath by a giant foot. The boys put away their weapons to look up at what cause the destruction of their enemies, only to have their jaws drop upon what they are seeing.

The being standing before them is another mech, but however this has blue armor in contrast to the green armor of the mechs chasing the Eds. This robot looks more human in design, with large forearms and legs and big black fists to go with the blue paint job. Along with the paint, there are flame decals on all four limbs, with one being a fiery eyeball, an 8 ball and two women decals, plus the number 12 on the mech's chest. The Eds can notice that there is no head to the mech, as they can only see the wings on the shoulders and no head. Who or whatever is controlling this robot with good precision if they do not have a cockpit to control it from.

Eddy picks up his jaw and lets out a whistle. "Will you look at this thing," he mutters. "It's like a gift dropped out of the sky."

"And very convenient too, for that matter," said Double D. "It did stomp out the Heartless for us."

"I want to drive the robot!" blurted Ed, getting up to the leg of the robot.

"Ed, I will be careful if I were you!" the smart Ed warned.

"OH c'mon Double D, what's the harm Ed can do? Besides, it's a long climb up there and Ed doesn't have the ability to get up there by himself."

"Yes and his vertigo problem are still there as well. It's only a matter of time before Ed realizes that he has to climb all the way to the top and realize how much of a drop it is from there."

"Plus, why let Ed drive the thing when I can do it myself."

"And why would you want to drive this robot?"

Eddy places a hand onto the leg of the robot and shoots the medium Ed a smirk. "Chicks dig giant robots," he answered, "and they love the men who drive giant robots."

Double D slaps his face as he lets an irritated groan. They notice that the mech's leg is lifting up and Ed begins to lose his grip, sliding down the side before collapsing onto the street, only to lean up and watch the robot go off in the distance. As the robot is running off, the boys can notice an orange car sitting where the head should be, which means that the cockpit of the mech is that car. The Eds watch the mech continue to run, only to notice the alien mech that was following them colliding with the blue mech and fighting between each other.

As the robots are fighting, the boys are getting the sound of cheering and grunts coming from the garage behind in their ears. The Eds walk over to the garage and look inside to see three people inside, with two older looking teenagers together and a redhead woman off in one corner. The two males that are together comprise of a large fellow with tan skin, spiky blonde hair and a blonde goatee, wearing a white shirt with the number 12 under a red lumberjack vest with sleeves torn off, blue jeans with a large belt buckles with flames as the pattern and a chain hanging off of the belt, and black boots. The other male is a skinny looking teen with black hair under a blue beanie, a really large black and green jacket over a hidden black shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers. The woman is similar in color as the large male, but she has long red head that is bright in color and her outfit is a one piece suit that looks futuristic, including her footwear and other accessories.

As the Eds step into the garage, they notice that the large teen is playing a game of some sort, using what appear to be a virtual-reality headset and two modified gamer gloves, and the skinny teen is providing some support into what he is doing. As for the woman, she is busy slaving away at what appears to be a component to some heavy piece of machinery. Ed and Eddy walk over to the teens to see what is the large teen is playing as Double D walks over to the woman to ask her what she is working at.

"So what is he playing?" asked Eddy.

"He's not playing anything," the skinny teen answered. "Coop here is controlling Megas and it looks like he is going for the final blow. You might want to step back for this."

The Eds take up on the teen's offer as they back away from the large teen to allow him some room for whatever he is going to perform. The teen named Coop flashes a smile as he gets up from where he is sitting and wiggles his fingers as he prepares to perform a move. The boys watch as Coop uppercuts the air and waits for a few seconds before slightly thrusting up and clasping his hands in a hug position. All of them can hear the sound of crashing coming from afar, in the direction of the two robots fighting, and after a minute, Coop lifts up his visor and keeps his smile on his face.

"Oh yeah! Another one for Megas!" he shouted.

"Dude, nice," the skinny teen said, pounding the large teen's fist.

"Yeah it was, but the thing was weak already."

"And that'll be my doing," replied Normadomus.

The two teens look over to Ed and notice the hat with a face, now realizing the boys' presences in the garage. Before they can ask anything about Ed's hat talking, Eddy steps in and utters the most common words "don't ask" to the two. As the boys are talking over things, Double D is visiting the woman and he can see that that the device before her is unlike any other machine he has seen before.

"Um, may I ask what you are working on?" he asked politely.

The woman removes her head away from the device and pulls up her goggles to reveal her eyes to the Ed. "Oh. Well since you ask, I am busy repairing this time flux device that I... 'borrowed' from the Glorft," she responded.

"Borrowed as in stole?"

"Whatever you may call it, at least I got my hands on this," the redhead answered. "I have been slacking off of this and at least I remembered why I was here in the first place."

"So you are working on a part that you apparently stolen from someone, all in hopes of using it for... time travel?" the smart Ed questioned, realizing the idea of "time flux". "Wait... what?"

The redhead drops her blowtorch and lets out a groan. "Look here. The Glorft are a race of alien beings that came from the future with me, and in the future they took over the world," the woman explained. "I am trying to get my hands on something that will allow me to travel back into the future and defeat the Glorft once and for all."

"But her only problem is that I messed up her one way ticket home and I am the only one who can drive it," Coop said, walking up to where Double D and the woman is.

"And this wouldn't happen if you were just left everything in place and kept all the parts intact!"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there Kiva. There's no need to get all hasty," the skinny teen said.

"Now then, what brings you to the neighborhood?" asked Coop.

"Oh we're just passing by and we notice the huge alien ship parked outside of this world," Eddy answered. "Why?"

"Any reason why that ship is here?" questioned Double D.

"Those are the Glorft and they're here for only thing," the woman Kiva started, "Megas."

"Yeah, but they tried and tried, but I kicked all of their butts every time they come here," Coop added.

"And not to mention that we got to go to other worlds and score on some hot alien babes," the skinny teen, known as Jamie, said coolly.

"See, what I told ya?" the greedy Ed said, nudging the smart Ed.

"Well, we're mainly here in search of a friend that went missing for some time," Double D began. "We're hoping that she or he is here and—"

"Wait, did you say 'friend?'" Jamie asked. "What's the point in 'she' or 'he' if you're missing one friend?"

"We actually lost a few friends from where we originated, thanks to the Heartless, and we're on a search to find our friends."

There is silence between the residents of this world, raising some eyebrows upon hearing about the Heartless. "Heartless, you say?" asked Coop. "What exactly are the Heartless?"

It did not dawn on the Eds that quickly until they realize that they do not know of the Heartless due to them controlling a giant robot and not knowing the beings right beneath their feet. It will not bother for the Eds to explain what they are if they are dealing with beings as tall as Megas outside, so they recline on giving an explanation about the beings they are fighting. As the silence draws on, everyone can hear the sound of feet stomping coming from Megas and the robot stops a few feet outside of the garage to cast a shadow into the garage.

"Well, it's nice knowing you boys," Coop said, tossing aside his virtual reality headset, "but we got some fun to do today."

"Uh, do you mind helping us out?" asked Double D. "You see, we got some indication that our friend is somewhere on board of the alien ship outside of this world and from we went up against, we can't go in with our ship."

"What did you guys come in with?" asked Kiva.

The Eds lead the trio out of the garage to reveal their Gummi ship to the redhead. Kiva walks up and begins to expect the hull of the _Midnight Hummer_, looking over every minute detail as the others begin checking out the ship as well. "Well, it does look like a very sturdy ship," said Kiva, "but if this gets expose to the Glorft's heavy arterially for an extended amount of time, there's no way that this is going to hold after a while."

"Yeah, that's good to hear," replied Eddy, "but we're tired of fighting, so we want to go ride in that."

The small Ed points up to the car head up on Megas and there is a shock reaction on Kiva's face. "You cannot be serious!" she snapped. "What happens if there were attack here and the controls get crushed from some form of…"

"Relax Kiva, I'm sure they can handle it," Coop answered calmly. "Besides, I'm the one that's going to be driving and there is no way that anyone is going to touch Megas."

"I call shotgun!" the greedy Ed shouted, running over to the leg of the robot.

"But… there isn't enough room for all of us to fit in there," the redhead complained.

"I wouldn't mind sitting out on this," Jamie added. "This gives me a chance to do some unfinished business down here."

"What unfinished business?" asked Coop, rising up an eyebrow.

Jamie begins to look around his surroundings in hopes of coming up with a good excuse, all before getting dragged from behind by Kiva. "Well, if you're going to be sitting around with nothing to do, then you're going to help me out," she said. "It's time that you start pulling your own load for this team and you're going to help out by assisting me."

"I'm not cut out for this," the teen groaned.

"We'll use your ship for the time being," Kiva said. "Once we find your friend, we'll come back and meet back here."

"Then that gives me enough to grab a bite to eat and maybe kick some can," Coop said, cracking his knuckles. "All right, let's move out."

Kiva begins to board onto the Midnight Hummer with Jamie hesitating to board, but the redhead starts to argue with the teen, which is enough to convince him to get on the Gummi ship. The remaining portion of the group watch as the ship lifts off and heads towards space, where the Glorft are waiting patiently, and they all look up at the towering mech that is Megas.

"So… how do we get inside?" asked Eddy.

"Don't worry; I got a method," replied Coop.

After a few minutes of getting inside of Megas and going all the way up to the top of the mech, the boys are sitting inside of the car that makes Megas' head. On the outside it appears to be a normal car sitting in place, but on the inside is an entirely different story. The dashboard is ladled with different components, ranging from a miniature television, different game controllers, several arrays of buttons, and other oddities lost in the jumble mess. Eddy and Ed are sitting in the backseat of the car, while Double D is sitting up in the passenger seat and Coop is sitting right behind the wheel.

"This is a nice car," said Ed.

"Thanks man. I'm glad you like it."

"So how do you pilot such a machine like this?" asked Double D.

"It's just like driving a normal car," Coop answered. "I floor it to go forward, shift to reverse to go back, and use different button commands to perform certain moves."

"Know the Konami code?" asked the tall Ed.

"That's interesting," the smart Ed mutters, looking over the controls.

"Now I want to lay some ground rules before we get rolling," the pilot said, holding up a hand. "One: there should be no making fun of Megas while you're up here. If you do, I'll have Megas throw you out of the car. Two… there are no other rules. So just sit back and enjoy the thrill ride of your life!"

"Do you mind allowing me to drive?" asked Eddy.

"Eddy, you do realize that you're too young to drive," said Double D.

"Yeah, I can't allow you to drive without a license," Coop replied. "Besides, I'm the only one who can drive Megas."

"Then can you do one small favor?"

"What is it, little man?"

Eddy leans in to whisper into Coop's ear, allowing the pilot to hear the Ed's request in secret. Once he is finish, Coop nods to this and he got Megas going off towards one part of town. The travel did not take long, as the group is hovering over a section of the city where it is suited for late-night partygoers. Within that area, there is a film crew, talking to some of the cast members about what is going in…

… That is, if Megas did not storm in and destroyed the cameras. Luckily the robot missed the film crew and the cast, but Megas breeze right through the set as if everything were leaves. Watching from afar, children and a random teen begin to cheer happily over the destruction of the set.

Inside of the car, all but Double D are cheering over the damage Megas made. "Really? You really went through with that little stunt?" he moans. "How could you? You do realize that you could have hurt someone walking through there!"

"Yes, but I wasn't aiming at them," replied Coop. "I'm not that cruel-hearted."

"But still, that doesn't give you the right to waltz right through the film set and destroy the equipment!"

"I never did like that show," Eddy stated. "At least Coop here is doing all of us a big favor by putting it off the air for good."

"Right on, little man," the pilot said, pounding the small Ed's fist and flashing some horns*.

Double D slaps his face once again, over the behavior of this action, as the mech is standing there without any worries of the actions down on the streets and up in space.

OOO

Back out in space, the aliens race of the Glorft are getting themselves into their battle armor and inside of their mech suits to prepare themselves for a fight down on the world's surface. Gorrath is looking over the situation with his second-in-command by his side and an army of soldiers waiting outside of the ship, all on stand-by for their leader's orders. During the time, there have been warnings of intruders going off throughout the main ship and all of those cases are classified as false. Now with the annoyances out of the way, Gorrath grabs a microphone and begins barking orders through it.

"All right troops, today is the day we will finally get our hands on MEGAS. If it kills us all in the end, at least we have our honor!"

The troops outside send their calls through the speakers, sounding slightly grainy to the ear. Just as Gorrath opens his mouth to begin the order of attack, an outline of a ghost appears and out from nowhere pops Prankster. Several Glorft notice the intrusion and begin to attack, before the Heartless summons his scythe blade and cuts every last alien down to size.

"Wha... you! What are you doing here?" Gorrath asked in confusion.

"Hello there!" Prankster answered cheerfully. "Well to answer your question, I got here through Mask, thanks to his personal ride. And second I got past all of your guards by simply hiding out of plain sight."

The head Glorft scowls at this as Prankster recalls back his scythe blade. "Now, there's a reason for me being here in the first place and that has to do with my mission."

"And what mission is that?"

"I am on the hunt for the Pure Hearted and the Keyblade. Somewhere on that world lies the Keyblade and I am going to need some help in getting it."

"And to why you need my help when I can get this 'Keyblade' for myself?"

"Well, let me put it like this. To say that if you do accept my offer, Father will give you a profitable gift that will be beneficial to you in the long run. Whatever it may be, it'll be yours for no cost whatsoever."

"So that means..."

"We can get our hands on the mech, sir," the commander said.

"And at no cost whatsoever," Gorrath muttered, wringing his hands as he parrots what Prankster offered. "But why should we trust you?"

"Well, why not trust a Heartless that has the mental capacity of a spring under tension? I am completely psychotic, but I do have the magic needed to help win this fight."

"And how's that?"

"Simple. All I need is the darkness out of this world and what do you know, I have the same amount of darkness in one area," explained the Heartless. "Now, once I extract all of that, I'll then summon Darkside and the battle will be over with."

"Yes, but battling MEGAS isn't as easy as you think it is," the commander stated. "You are going to need to have something that can overpower you over it."

"Uh, you do realize that insanity does increase power, and I do have control over the darkness of this one being here? I know what I am doing here. This isn't exactly my first summon."

"Still, I want to have only one thing and only that," Gorrath said darkly. "I want to have the head of MEGAS in my trophy room."

"You got it!" Prankster replied, tipping his hat down as he flashes a smile.

With a swing of his staff and resting it on his shoulder, the ghost Heartless begins to fade into the surroundings and heads off to go down to the world to perform his summon. Once fully gone, the two Glorft are left to wonder what to do next. "Uh, should we finish the attack order?" the commander asked.

"Oh... right."

OOO

Prankster is now in the city, reappearing on top of a building with his staff in hand and grinning widely. As he is floating on top of the building, he is looking out among the town to see where the source of darkness is. There is some rumbling and the ghost looks over to notice Megas heading right towards him, seeing the robot's blue frame closing in on him and watching the mech pass right by him. As Megas is passing by, he can sense the same amount of darkness coming from the robot, and the Heartless grows his smile even larger.

"Oh yes, there we go! A large chunk of darkness needed to summon Darkside!" he chuckled, before coming to his senses. "Wait… why would a robot have darkness in it when it's not alive?"

As Megas is walking, the Eds take notice of green mechs flying in the air before coming to a stop and landing right in front of Megas. Coop knows what to do about the situation, as he revs the engine up and got his hands on one of his controllers, waiting for one of the Glorft mechs to attack. When one did, the pilot begins entering a string of commands, which cause Megas to pull back and swing a direct punch into the chest of the Glorft and knocking the mech into the others. Another mech decides to do the same thing, but Coop declines this and beats the robot down into scrap metal.

"Another day, another chance to beat the sense out of the Glorft," the pilot said.

"I don't see how you're the only one who can drive this," said Eddy. "Ed here seems capable of driving this robot and he has a staff made out video game controllers."

"Really? Well, maybe I'll see that later once we get done here."

"I hope that is the last one we'll be facing," said Double D.

Just after he finished his sentence, there is some pounding outside and all four of them look outside to notice several Glorft mechs standing before them. All of them are not moving one bit, standing fully erect and posing some fear into the boys. "I stand corrected."

"Hey, at least this'll add more to my current hit list," Coop said. "The more I hit, the lesser that we're going to be facing later on."

Down on the ground is a camera crew following three dumb-looking teenage boys, in which are recording the boys' movement. The boys are talking in such a way to where it is annoying to most, but to them it is perfectly fine. They are standing next to an abandoned car, which has seen better days, and the boys are talking about blowing the car up using diet cola and mint candies. Everyone is hiding behind some form of protection to prevent getting hit and the boys are standing far away to watch the explosion waiting to happen.

The ground begins to shake and the cameramen turn around to notice the towering mech heading right towards them. Megas lowers a hand down to scoop the car up and toss the potential bomb over at the leader of the first wave; only to have the car explode in a carbonated shower of soda and candy.

"Huh, that's a strange pinto," muttered Coop.

"Was that soda?" questioned Double D.

"I'm thirsty" Ed randomly mutters.

"Hey dude, we were using that for a stunt!" shouted one of the boys on the ground.

"Yeah dude, we were trying to see if soda will cause the car to blow up!" shouted the second boy.

"Come on, dude!" stated the third boy.

"Well, that seems illogical," Double D said, scratching his head in confusion.

"More like stupid," Eddy flatly stated.

"Not only that, but that's a complete waste of soda," Coop complained.

The pilot got Megas to pinch on the backsides of the boys' collars and lifts them all the way up to the windshield. "OK first off, you're not Prinnies. You don't need to add 'dude' to every sentence of yours," Coop explained angrily. "Second, why would you even use soda to destroy a car?"

"Because it's awesome?" the second boy questioned.

"It's dumb!" barked Eddy.

"Not to mention that it will only create a sticky mess, not blow it up," stated Double D.

"So boys, do you want to end up being food for the Gloft," asked Coop, "or do you want to live?"

Megas spins the boys around to allow them to look at the incoming wave of Gloft mechs heading for the blue robot. The three boys begin to panic upon seeing the Gloft, and they beg and plea not to be thrown over to them. After a moment of consideration among each other, the group decides to allow the boys to live…

… If only Megas did not chuck the boys over the Gloft.

Double D's mouth is hanging wide open, shocked by the sudden decision to throw the boys, and he turns to face Coop with a red face. "In what mind gave you the decision to throw those boys?" he shouted.

"Hey, they said they want to live so I decide to get them far away from this fight," the pilot replied, justifying his reason.

"That may be true, but that doesn't give you the reason to throw some innocent boys!" the smart Ed stated.

"Somewhere out there, a boy is laughing and shouting in glee," Ed's hat flatly said.

Ed leans forward and opens his mouth to speak. "You know what Prinnies are?" he asked.

"_Yeah. Coop here is a bit of a champion when it comes to that game series_," Jamie answered over the radio. "_He_ _got through the thing in no time and without any help from any guide whatsoever_."

"Hey, that was a one-time thing!" the pilot snapped back. "I somehow got my hands on the game and couldn't put it down after that."

"_You guys want the footage of him playing it once I get out of here_?"

"WHAT! You made a video?"

"_Yep, and I got copies_."

"Oh you're so dead once you get back," Coop said.

"Easy Coop, you're arguing with a radio," Double D said, intervening before things turn for the worst. "I'm pretty sure that he is bluffing and he doesn't have any copies."

The pilot leans back in his seat and begins to wonder if Jamie is telling the truth. Sure he did have a witness playing the game when they were at Coop's house and there was a video recorder there, but the chance of Jamie filming him playing and making copies? Those odds are better than Jamie getting himself a space woman to fall in love with him on first sight _and_ go out with him for more than a week!

"_Hey guys, I think I found one of your friends_."

"Really?" asked Double D. "Who does he or she look like?"

"_Well she has this long blonde hair, a cute face, wearing a black shirt, white tank top, blue pants_…"

"Nazz!" shouted all three Eds at once.

"Ed? Double D? Eddy? Is that you?" replied a girl's voice.

"Yes, it's us!" Double D replied hesitantly. "Are you all right?"

"Did the aliens probe you or not?" asked Ed, referring back to his science fiction.

"_Goodness, no! I remember waking up inside of this ship and these squid things noticed me and locked me up in a cell_."

"Well, at least Jamie is there to save you," Coop said.

"_Yeah, about that… I'm also locked up and shackled to the wall_."

Everyone inside of Megas slap their head in disbelief. "Is Kiva with you?" Coop groaned.

"_Luckily, no. We split up after getting on board of here and I haven't heard from her since_."

"So that means you need to wait for Kiva to find you and leaves us to fight these guys. Say, you didn't see any Glorft up there, did you?"

"_No. The place was empty. All that remained are the guards here_…"

They can hear the sound of shouts coming through the radio before cutting off. There is nothing else coming through the speaker, even no static, leaving them wondering what happen to the two.

"Is he all right?" asked Ed.

"Well judging Jamie… he should be fine," Coop answered.

"He said that the ship is nearly empty, right?" asked Eddy.

"Yeah?"

"So that means we're going up against an army of alien robots."

"Actually, that's a pretty normal situation here."

"So is there an easy way to get rid of all of these aliens?" asked Double D.

"I can think of one…"

Coop cracks his knuckles once again and wraps his fingers around the steering wheel, with a wicked smile on his face. With the engine revving to life and a one hand hovering over the gear shift, he waits for the right moment to strike. As a second ticks away, Coop slams the gear shift to drive and floors it, propelling a large amount of exhaust through the thrusters and launching the blue mech at the horde of Glorft. The Eds are pushed back by the force weighing them down, leaving only Coop not affected by the force of the launch.

The Glorft mechs got ready for the attack that Megas is going to pull, but in an instant several of them are knocked down by a spinning attack. Coop is spinning the steering wheel around, causing the torso of Megas to spin like a top and using the arms like rotary blade to hit each green mech. One by one the Glorft mechs fall, each hitting the streets, buildings and others to cause a large amount of damage to the city as Megas stops its spinning to focus on the rest of the Glorft.

A few mechs charge down on Megas and Coop lifts them overhead to fling them over and pile up in a large pile. Once there is a large mess, the blue mech morphs a hand into a flamethrower and set the pile ablaze. With flames dancing on melting metal, Megas takes the arms of a few surviving Glorft and send them into the burning pile to torch them. As the pile grow, Megas pops out a few machine guns and shoots the pile down to size to make some room for some more mechs.

Double D is keeping track of the number of Glorft being defeated as Ed and Eddy are watching in the backseat, grinning wildly as Coop bash each mech down into the ground. "Man Ed, this is a lot better than a monster truck rally!" stated Eddy.

"Do a barrel roll!" Ed called out randomly.

"Yoo-hoo, Ed boys!" called out one voice among the crowd.

Everyone stops to wonder where the voice came from. All of a sudden, the ground beneath them starts to glow a bright purple and Double D begins to feel weak. The air around is getting dark as on the ground, Prankster is extracting the darkness in the area and pulling it on in for his summon. Once getting all that he can get, he spins his staff around and begins slicing the ground open, so that he can summon Darkside from the ground and control him once he is out. The blue mech leans in slightly to peer down into the hole and an arm shoots up, and not long the muscle body of Darkside is out in the world.

"Oh no, not this guy again," groans Eddy.

There is the loud sound of chuckling coming from the ghost Heartless as he flies himself all the way up to the shoulder of Darkside. "Well, ain't this a surprise?" he said. "You guys decided that you need to use a robot to finally take on Darkside? Hey, whatever floats your boat."

"They're not the ones controlling Megas," snapped Coop. "I am!"

"Really?" Prankster peers inside through the windshield to see the image of Coop at the wheel. "Huh. Well, I like to see that thing of yours try to leave a dent in Darkside."

"All right. This gives me a chance to take not only that down, but a few more Glorft as well."

"What are you talking about? There's only me and Darkside?"

The group looks out through the windshield to notice that the remaining Glorft mechs are lying on the ground, drained of energy. They realize that all of that energy must have gone into Darkside, making this Heartless the strongest thing standing here. But to the boys… this is just another opponent worth taking down.

Megas is roaring its engine, with Coop getting enough fuel into the core of the robot, and Prankster is grinning like a maniac as Darkside waits for his orders. With the scythe out, the ghost flashes the blade forward and Darkside charges forward. Megas opens a few components on its arms and sends out a few missiles, streams of bullets from machine guns, and a couple of bombs. With each hit, not one is leaving a scratch in the giant's body, which is now leaving the mech wide open for an attack. Coop got Megas to hold out its hands and Darkside connects to put the two in a strength test.

The engine roaring with life and the ground giving way, the two titans push against each other with even strength. Soon Megas is getting an upper hand, pushing the Heartless down before Prankster jabs the butt of his staff down and force Darkside to get back up. This went on for a few minutes before the two back off and wait another moment for a chance to strike. Considering that both are even, they look at each other in hopes of finding a weak spot.

"Got any ideas on where the weak spots could be?" asked the pilot.

"Try for the head and hands," answered Normadomus.

With that in mind, Megas morphs both hands into machine guns and fires away at Darkside's hands. Each bullet is hitting and causing some damage to each hand, in which the Heartless is pulling them back in pain and leaving the creature open for a direct assault to its head. Megas morphs its hands back into fists and lands a perfect shot right into the giant's face, sending the metal fist a inch into Darkside's face as the Heartless stumbles back in pain and Prankster holding on to the giant.

The ghost begins spitting out orders at Darkside, who is recovering its hands from the pain of bullets, and the ghost shoots out an order to use its head. The giant follows through with this order and lowers its head down while charging forward. Coop raises both hands to Megas and blocks the incoming blow, but the hair of Darkside shoot in all direction and stick their sharp ends into the arms of Megas to do some damage. Prankster twirls his staff around and makes a slice in the air, attempting to cut the robot open, but the attack fails.

Coop grits his teeth and he jerks one arm back to release it from Darkside's grip and punch it away. Now free, the pilot strings in some button combinations, with Ed throwing in some that he knows of, and Megas follow each command with number of punches and a few kicks. At the end of one command launches the mech up into the air, causing Prankster and Darkside to study the technique for a bit before receiving a metal foot in the face. The giant Heartless grab onto the leg and toss Megas aside, only for the robot to crash into several buildings and recovering from the throw.

As Darkside is recovering from the blow, Prankster shakes off the blow and looks at the blue mech before him. "What's the matter, boys? Aren't you afraid to step out of that stupid thing and fight us for real?"

"What did you say?" the pilot asked.

"I said aren't you afraid to step out of that stupid thing and fight…"

"All right you dark freak, you may have my friends on that ship and you may talk smack about the boys riding with me," Coop started, "but when you start messing with Megas... it gets personal."

"Oooh, I'm real scared!" Prankster replied sarcastically. "Really fatso? You obviously think that robot of yours can take down a powerhouse like Darkside here? I think that you need to cut your diet out of those slushies and cheesesteaks if I was you."

There is a moment of silence between the Heartless and Megas, as the Ed boys are looking in worry at the pilot before them. He is gripping onto the steering wheel very tightly as his knuckles turn white, and he looks up with a twitching eye and grinding teeth. The boys can tell that Coop is mad, and they figure that this is not over the comment of being call "fatso"...

"_Oh boy, this ought to be good_," said Jamie.

"OK, that's it! I'm going to send that muscle freak all the way to the end of this story!" Coop roars, getting Megas into a fighting stance. "Get yourself ready for my finishing special!" He shifts the gear all the way to the highest setting and he floors the pedal, only to slow everything down. "... Now which one is it again?"

The Eds slap their foreheads as the pilot looks over the dashboard for a button he can use. With among the selection, there are three that are standing out to him, each label very strangely. One is label "_Megas' Hidden Divine Attack_," another is label "_Only a Few More Paragraphs in this Chapter_," and the final label "_Incredibly Lame Pun_." Coop runs his finger through the selection, taking his time to choose his option and he finally settles on the one button that will guarantee him and the Eds a certain win. The Eds look up to see which button Coop pressed, only for them to feel the whole car shaking them up.

Instead, it is Megas that is shaking, but more rather transforming into something else. Everyone is watching, including the Glorft, as the blue mech is opening up and folding in to morph itself into a very large gun of some sort. Prankster begins to wonder what can a robot like Megas can do such a thing before recalling three words the Heartless stumble onto in the past. The ghost begins to panic over the remembered words and he begins to order Darkside to move, but the giant is not budging from his spot. Prankster looks up to see that the gun that Megas turned into is charging up, revealing an orange glow inside of the barrel.

"Father..." is all he can say.

Megas unleashes its attack upon the Heartless, sending the energy beam out at the normal rate of a typical gun. Instead of a beam, the attack behaves more of a grenade launcher, firing a large explosive-like device inside of a beam-like casing, before colliding into the body of Darkside and exploding on contact. A large mushroom cloud launches up into the air, along with Prankster to only send him flying away from the city, and the cloud begins to form into an F-shape cloud. Everyone watching the site begin to wonder why did the cloud form into an F, all before the smart Ed opens his mouth.

"I think I get the joke now," Double D mutters, covering up his face.

"What? You mean dropping an f... oh, now I get it," the pilot said, before slapping himself in the face. "Man that _was_ a bad joke."

"Who writes this crap anyway?" asked Eddy.

The others shrug at this as they take a moment to feel the joy overcoming them. They defeated a giant Heartless without the assistance of the Keyblade, and it is all thanks to Coop's strange piloting method. This is getting Double D to get the feeling of the keyhole very nearby, and he looks over to the starter to notice the keyhole forming right over the keys. Taking out the Keyblade in the limited space, the smart Ed sends out a beam of light and seals the lock to the world through the starter engine of a giant robot car.

"Isn't that ironic?" Normadomus asked.

Megas walks back over to the garage that Coop calls home and the boys got out from the mech using the same method that they got in. Now back on the ground, the Eds notice that their ship is not there, meaning that Kiva and Jamie are still up there in space retrieving Nazz from her prison. As Coop is walking to the garage, he notices something shiny on the ground and he picks it up to get a closer look at it.

"Hey, look what I found," the pilot said, holding up a charm.

The Eds look at the charm that is Coop's hands and Double D recognizes the charm to be similar to the one he acquired back in Washington, D.C. However, this charm is different in color and what is on the charm, as the charm comprises of being blue for the chain, a night gray for the stone and a yellow ring holding the stone. Inside of the stone is a symbol of a helmet, yet it looks more robotic than what they have seen before.

Double D asks for the charm and Coop is nice enough to hand the charm over. Pocketing the new charm with the one from Washington, D.C, Double D walks back over to his friends as they notice their ship coming back into orbit and landing right next to the garage. The two beings of Kiva and Jamie emerge from the hull and walk over to the group to talk to them.

"If you want to know what happened to your girl friend, she's inside," Jamie answered.

"Well, thanks for the help," the smart Ed said. "We appreciate that you helped us out in getting one of our friends back."

"And thanks for the ship," Kiva said, holding up a strange device. "Without it, I wouldn't be able to grab this device needed to complete the time flux and create a way back into the future."

"Aw, you're going to leave," Coop whines, not to the Eds. "But I was getting familiar with the buttons and what they can do."

"Hey, if we come back here to visit, you won't mind giving us a ride in your car if there's no robot under it?" offered Eddy.

"Sure thing, little man," the pilot responded, pounding the small Ed's fist.

With that final goodbye, the Eds got on board of their ship, with Nazz sleeping in the lounge room and a new charm in Double D's pocket. After some moments, the Eds got back into space, passing by the vacant Glorft spaceship and back into the unknown territory of space. On the ground, the trio looks up into the sky as they watch the star of the _Midnight Hummer_'s thrusters disappear.

"So, who wants to grab a bite to eat?" is all Coop can say.

OOO

"Commander!"

"Yes Gorrath sir?"

"Get the cloning kit out. It appears that I have lost all of my troops again..."

"As you wish, sir. I'll begin creating clones of myself just like you asked."

OOO

"Aw man, I am _so_ hungry!"

The ghost Heartless Prankster is now floating slowly on the outskirts of Jersey City, with his staff swung onto his shoulder and hang slouching low. Ever since getting the boot from the Glorft, the Heartless is roaming the planet looking for something to eat before he can leave the world, but with his luck... He is finding nothing.

"For all that is worth, I can't seem to find anything reasonable to eat these past few months," the Heartless said. "My brother Heartless are having a better time than I am and I am a Heartless like them! What am I doing wrong that is preventing me from eating?"

Prankster comes to a stop and plops to the ground, causing his ghost tail to turn into legs and he tilts his head back to let out a cry. "Is there anything out here that I can eat?" he shouted. "I don't care how bad it is! I want to fill my empty stomach!"

As he is complaining, the ghost can hear the sound of screaming coming from overhead. Prankster looks up to notice the three boys Megas threw before flying over his head and land several feet away. This got the Heartless excited, as he got up from his position and rushes over to where the boys landed, only to stop a few yards away to prevent him from being notice by the boys.

"Whoa dude, why did that robot thing throw us for?" asked the first boy.

"Don't know dude," replied the third boy, "but we need to get back to wherever we were to finish filming."

"Right dude," the second boy said, taking the lead for them.

As the boys are leaving, Prankster backs away and disappears so that he would not be notice by the boys. Time pass and he reveals himself back into the world, only to tail right behind the boys to see where they are going and to catch them being lost. The three boys are questioning and arguing with each other about which way to go, their voices loud enough to pull Prankster close enough to stop the boys from arguing.

The three boys are quiet now, staring at the ghost with a confused look on their faces. "Uh, is everything all right dude?" the second boy asked.

"Yeah, do you need anything?" the third boy replied.

Prankster stands there for a few minutes, giving the boys a blank stare. The boys are curious about why the Heartless is giving them this look, before shifting to a fearful look with Prankster growing a wide open smile on his face.

"LUNCH!" the Heartless stated hungrily.

* * *

So Prankster, how were those hearts?

**Prankster**: To say the least, those hearts make the _Johnny Test_ hearts taste like Kobe beef.

Really, they're that bad? *Prankster nods* Wow... I can't blame you.

OOO

Only one word is needed to describe this chapter: nice.

And surprisingly enough, Darkside ain't the final boss. A bit of a spoiler, but it's true. Can't say when Darkside is going to make an appearance again, but it will be later...

So... this is _Megas XLR_. Really, I did enjoy the series while it was on, and man I miss it now. I watched a few episodes just to see how the characters behave and get some of the names. I also did some research into how Megas operates and really... it's a Dues Ex Machima. And yeah, that one attack was really bad, but that's how the show works (as in Coop presses a button and something random happens).

So I was trying to think what would be a good plot to do for this, and I managed to go with this. I look at some background into the show and noticed that MTV is a very popular target for them. If you managed to figure it out, the creators of this show once had a little animated show called _Downtown_ on MTV, but it was cancelled after the first season. Yeah, you really think that they are pleased with the decision?

And to go along with the destruction of MTV's most popular show, I also took a crack swing at the Dudes, my number… 3 enemy. I have a number one but I rather not talk about it. But I will say this: if any of you show any appreciation towards the Dudes, Prankster here will be very grateful that you'll be offering your heart to him. Seriously, he's very hungry.

**Prankster**: Not to mention that it'll get rid of that nasty taste in my mouth.

So if you know what's best, please don't show your appreciation for the Dudes. … Unless you're glad that I made fun of them, I'll accept that.

Also, this is the first time that we seen any form of combat that doesn't involve the Heartless as the main enemy, plus the first to where the _Eds_ are not doing the fighting. Granted I did do the Gummi Heartless, but that doesn't have any direct infliction with the world for this chapter. I may have another chapter to where the Eds are not going to fight the Heartless again, but it all depends on what show I am doing.

… So once again I like for you to review. Up next is a walk into your minds and the world of… I'm hungry all of a sudden.

*horns is directly relating to the hand sign of "ILY." Couldn't fit the true meaning into this because of, well, what it stands for.


	12. Act II, Ch 12: Foster's

Well, I am cleaning up the mess that I made from the last chapter and I have to say... at least it was fun to write. All of that fighting without even lifting a finger... if only I can do that every chapter for the Eds. Sadly, they are going back to work in this chapter, going on to the next world and keeping up their job fighting the Heartless.

So what do I have up here for this world... well, this is another work from a famous creator, who is responsible for one world that I did back in Act I, and... this was made in Flash? ... Who to thunk? Well, at least people still like this show, so let this chapter going.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twelve – Boarding Home for the Imagination

OOO

Nazz is resting against the arm rest of a red couch, sleeping for some time after her little experience. She can remember being in the cul-de-sac and getting suck down into a vast sea of shadows, follow by winding up on an alien spaceship surrounded by strange squid-like aliens with robotic torsos. Then she got captured by these aliens and got locked up in the process, only for a teenage boy to walk in and get himself in a cage. After some time, a red haired woman barged in and freed the two, only to direct them to a red ship and take to them to another world.

_If only it was a dream_... she thought, but sadly: it is not.

The blonde opens her eyes and shoots up from her position, looking around the room she is in, taking notice of the objects standing in this room before calming herself down. She has been in that cell for some time, and it was thanks to that one woman for helping her out and getting on board of this ship. Strangely, she does not know if this ship is on the ground or moving, so she got up from her seat to look out to see who is in the cockpit. Up at the controls, she can see that Double D and Eddy are sitting at the controls, with the smart Ed piloting the ship and the greedy Ed relaxing in the co-pilot chair.

Up in front, the Eds are relaxing from their latest expedition from Jersey City. From there, they did learn that Jersey can be a great place to live if you have a giant robot car to leave behind a trail of destruction. Eddy is thinking about that if he was in control of Megas, he would go out and find one building only for the robot to smash it down into bit-sized rumble. The small boy is snickering with the thought playing over and over as the medium Ed gives a stern look over to the boy.

"Oh come on, why the look?"

"Eddy, you're not thinking about using Megas for evil intentions?" the smart Ed asked.

"Oh course not! I wasn't going to destroy a random empty building with a giant robot out of spite, now was I?"

Double D looks at Eddy for a bit, who is shooting the smart Ed a scornful stare. "I guess so," the medium boy sighs.

The small Ed turns away and places his head in his hand, only to mumble something under his breath so low to not even be heard. Ed is off back sitting on a bench, moving his head back and forth as if he is listening to some music. His hat is sitting next to him, as he is not use to rocking from side to side, and he is resting up a bit to lose the green around his trims. The tall Ed takes notice of a cabinet ahead of him and something in his mind is telling him to expect it, so he got up from his seat to check what is inside of the cabinet.

He opens up the door and finds a stereo playing the same music that has been playing the moment they entered the ship, and he eyes the dial that scans for channels. Ed places a hand onto his face to think over rather to put it to the song that is in his head or choose a different song entirely, only to remove his hand and place his fingers on the dial. With his other hand on the volume, he twists the scan dial until he picks up on the song that is playing in his head, and he cranks up the volume to startle everyone on board. The music came booming out of the speakers, playing the solo of the song, and Ed got busy dancing away as the other Eds look behind them to see their tall friend busy.

"Ed! Turn that music down!" screamed Eddy.

Ed did not hear the outburst over the terribly loud music, so the small Ed got up from his seat and runs over to the stereo and turns the music all the way to zero, causing Ed to stop his dancing and freeze in place. The boys wait for the tall one to move a muscle but he is perfectly still in his position, only for a slight breeze to knock him over and have him collapse onto the ground. The small Ed lets out an irritated sigh and looks over the stereo to change it back to the music that was playing earlier.

There is the sound of laughter coming from behind them and the Eds look to see that Nazz is in the room, watching the events before her. The Eds forgot that she is joining them on their journey, remembering that she was asleep when they got onboard. So with a fully awake Nazz witnessing the boys have some time playing around, the blonde makes her way over to where Normadomus is sitting and looks down at the hat. She picks it up and decides to place the hat onto her head, getting it on with a tight fit.

"So Ed, is this you hat?" she asked, and the tall boy replies with a nod. "I hope you don't mind wearing it for a bit."

"Yeah, I don't mind," the hat answered. "I actually like the softness of your hair. What kind of combination of shampoo and conditioner do you use?"

"Well, I tend to use... wait, did you just..."

"Don't ask," replied all three Eds. "It's a long story."

"Yeah but I swear this hat just talk," said Nazz.

"And stranger things happen in this universe everyday, miss," said the hat. "I'm just one of them and believe all of us, we have seen stranger events."

"So... what exactly are you doing here?" asked the blonde.

"Well Nazz, we are currently looking out for others from the cul-de-sac, on the lookout for some keyholes to worlds' hearts, and finding some missing people," answered Double D.

"Keyholes to worlds' hearts?" echoed Nazz. "That doesn't sound right..."

"Again, strange things," the hat replied, echoing himself.

"OK. So you are looking for the others then. Did you actually found anyone else besides me?"

"We found Rolf and two of the Kankers," said Eddy. "We don't know where the others are now but..."

"We do have a new world coming up, judging by the slow beeping on the radar," said Double D, looking over at the radar. "Sadly there isn't anyone there, but maybe we can find something useful there."

"Awesome, dudes! Can I come along with you guys?" asked the blonde.

"I'm sorry Nazz, but you can't come with us," replied the smart Ed. "You will only get in the way and we don't want to have you a target for the Heartless."

"Oh. Well, that's all right. I'm sure I can find something to do while you guys are out."

When this got to Eddy's ears, he begins to grin as wide as Ed and rub his hands greedily. The tall Ed reaches for his hat and places it on his head, only for Normadomus to look down at the greedy Ed's expression. "You're disturbed," he muttered.

The green blip begins to pick up speed and everyone gathers around to notice the new world approaching in the windshield. What are they seeing is a collection of homes gather together with a rather tall building comprise of different rooms bulging out. There is a leafless willow tree next to this building, and the Eds can see that this building is the main attraction to this world.

"I don't know about this world, but there's something strange about it..." said Eddy.

"It feels like Jib is here," said Ed. "Or was here."

"Well, only one way to find out," said Double D as he adds more thrust and got the Gummi ship into the world.

OOO

As display from the outskirts of this world, the town the _Midnight Hummer_ is sailing over is nothing more than homes with a couple of businesses, which reminds the Eds of Peach Creek, with the only exception is the tall building before them. The smart Ed flies around for a bit before getting their ship down to street level and parking in a spot to where no one can tow their ship. They park nearby the building, so when they got out they notice the multi-story building and black willow standing ominously on the other side of the fence.

Deciding that they will check this building out, the boys walk down the sidewalk to get up to the corner and make the turn to the building. At the corner, there is a paper sign posted on the stop sign and Double D takes a look at the sign to read what it says. "_Don't miss Adopt-a-Thought Saturday, held every Saturday at Foster's_," he reads off. "That's strange. It feels like I was here before."

"I don't remember being here," said Eddy.

"Maybe I was having a moment there," the smart Ed said, rubbing his head, "but reading that sign made me that I was here before."

"You're not the only one," Ed pitched in. "I remember that I had Eddy's job and you had my job and there was a commotion going on outside."

"Really?" Double D begins to think over him as a Mage and Ed a Defender, which makes sense due to their personalities and strengths, but he shakes this thought off.

"Well I don't know where you two have been, but I want to check this place out," the greedy Ed complained. "Besides, if today's Saturday, maybe we can get here a thought of his own."

"Ooh, can I name it K.K?"

"You can do whatever you want with it, you lug," Eddy responded. "Now let's check this place out."

The Eds left the corner and head up the sidewalk to get to the entrance of this building. As they are walking, they take notice of the rooms that are sticking out and the different varieties of windows that dot the house. Double D begins to question if some unknown architect design this building for a specific reason or that he designed it just for it to only stand out for which the owner of the building is that wealthy to purchase such a design. Nonetheless the Ed boy are going to find out one way or another and that will start as soon as they pass on through the archway and take a step onto the property.

They stop right out in front of the metal arch, reading "Foster's" in the same black metal as the railing, and the boys crane their necks up to take a look at the roof of the building. After a minute of gawking, the Eds return their heads back to normal eye level and they pass through the arch to walk up to the porch. As they are walking, they notice a wooden sign erected in the grass, giving the boys a reading of the name of this place. On the sign has a black doily with three different colors for the curvy letters inside of this black space.

"So, this is a foster home for imaginary friends, huh?" the smart Ed said, looking up at the building. "I never thought a place could exist for such a thing."

"And we're talking about the kind that are invisible and only one person can see them, right?" asked Eddy.

"So can we find Jib here?" asked Ed. "I always wondering what he look like."

"Ed, aren't you the one who created him? Shouldn't you have a visual of what Jib looked like?" questioned Double D.

The tall Ed places a finger on his lip and begins to think over on what his imaginary friend looked like. "I forgot."

"Who's this Jib fellow?" asked Normadomus.

"He's Ed's imaginary friend," answered Double D. "He was created during the time we were working on a scam to earn some money to buy jawbreakers..."

"And Jib came and ruined the whole thing!" stated the greedy Ed. "We could have earn some money on that scam, but _no_! Jib had to ruin it for all of us!"

"Eddy! It wasn't my fault," Ed whines. "Jib knew something about the scam and he wanted to protect the other kids!"

"Well I'm sure Jib did a good thing when he was in the cul-de-sac, but you should know that it hurts us from earning any money," said Double D, which follows him mumbling under his breath too low for anyone too hear.

"So can we just go inside and see what this building is all about?" Eddy whines, getting irritated about waiting.

The Eds look at the front door of the foster home, standing there with a slight breeze pressing against them. There is something in the air that is preventing them from moving; a rather dark matter lingering around the house to be precise. "Can you feel that?" asked the medium Ed.

"That feeling that some powerful dark lord was here or could be here waiting for us to walk in and step into a trap?" the hat questioned.

Double D gives a questioning look over to Ed's hat, realizing that the hat has the same exact feeling and instinct as the boy. Still, the trio is cautious about venturing into the house for what lies inside, but they do want to investigate and wonder through this unknown house. They finally take their first steps once again, moving in sync as they move each foot at a time to reach closer to the steps. Once they draw near, the boys can hear the sound of clicking nearby and they turn to look in the direction of where the noise is coming from.

By the wooden sign, there walks a small Heartless that resembles much like a gumball machine, and two of the Ed boys are drooling. The Heartless is walking on small four red legs, holding up a black body and has a razor mouth for a drop door. Along with the strange living body are the usual features of a vending machine, featuring a glass dome with goodies inside and a crank to dispense the coin and allow a prize to come out. There is a tail on top of the dome, and printed in front is the same emblem of the Heartless.

The vending Heartless takes a turn towards the Eds as if it is heading for the stairs, all without noticing the Eds there at all. The boys watch in silence as the Heartless draws near, not making any sudden movements that will startle the little creature. As soon as the Heartless notice the Eds in its sights, it jumps up into the air and takes off in the opposite direction.

"Well that's strange," said Double D.

"What, no fight?" asked Eddy.

"T... That's a Rare Vendor!" shouted Normadomus. "Don't just stand there, get it!"

The Eds look at each other and they got to running after the vending Heartless. The little Rare Vendor takes a turn around the sign with the Eds tailing right behind it, but the Heartless is proving to be much faster than the larger humans. The four continue to run around the yard before the Eds stop and watch the Rare Vendor mocking them.

"Hey Ed, can you use that speed thing of yours?" asked Eddy, panting slightly.

"Sure thing Eddy!" the tall Ed replied, hoisting his staff up high.

The Rare Vendor watch as the tip of Nerd's Tools glow white and got to defend itself from the incoming attack. However, it looks up to notice the Eds are staring at the creature with smiles on their face and this is scaring the Heartless. The Rare Vendor sprints off to get behind of the foster house and the Eds are following in suit, using the speed boost of Haste to help them catch up to the Heatless. This is all that they need to finally touch the little bugger, which got started with Eddy using his shield to beat the Heartless and allowing the crank to click.

The Rare Vendor takes a dive and tumbles for a bit before recovering and continues its running. Double D wants to try to hit it, but the Heartless is far away from the Keyblade's reach and the Rare Vendor is gaining some distance. Then at that moment, a grey light starts to form on the Keyblade shaft and Double D can feel a sudden burst of energy building up inside of him. With one step, he immediately takes off and swings his Keyblade, slicing right through the Rare Vendor and skidding to a stop, all before doing it again.

Ed and Eddy skid to a halt, only to watch their friend performing a new move, which got the Heartless up into the air after five swift moves. Then the smart Ed appears in the air, with the Keyblade behind his head, and he takes a downward swing down on the creature, knocking it down into the ground and causing it to disappear. However, instead of a heart coming out from the fallen Heartless, a round item shoots up into the air and remains floating up there for some time.

"Uh, what exactly was that?" asked the smart Ed, once finally coming to his senses.

"What, the move, the Heartless or the item in the air?" asked Ed's hat.

"All three."

"Well that Heartless was a Rare Vendor, only two types of Heartless that are based around giving items instead of hearts," Normadomus explained. "By what I am guessing, your Keyblade must have got a rare item out of that Rare Vendor, and the odds of getting something what you got are pretty high. As for the move, I believe that is Rush Arcane, a rushing attack very similar to those I have seen in the past."

"And what was the item that Sock-head got?" asked Eddy, watching the item in the sky.

"We'll find out shortly," Double D said, holding out a hand.

All three boys are looking up to notice the hang time of the item has reached its peak and it is dropping back down to the ground. With only the smart Ed holding out his hand, the boys wait patiently as the item comes back down to earth... only for it to miss Double D's hand and land in someone else's. The boys look up in the window next to them and notice a strange looking being with a narrow green body and one singular eye with lashes holding out its hands and gripping onto a round goldish orb.

"Thank you," replied the being, slipping through the window and closing it on the Eds.

"Hey, that was ours!" shouted Eddy with his anger boiling.

"And that was a very good orichalcum for that matter!" stated Normadomus. "Whoever that thing is must have known about it and wants to sell it off!"

"Really, that's orichalcum?" asked Double D.

"That stuff is quite rare and it is use to synchronize with other items to form new weapons," the hat said. "If someone is looking for that stuff, we should get our hands back on it and get out of here so that we can get a new weapon in return."

"Maybe I should get my hands on that orb and get myself a new shield," said Eddy.

"Well first we need to find that thing and get it back first. But who knows where that little thing could have gone off to?"

"North to Alaska!" shouted Ed randomly, pointing at the roof of the foster home.

"No, he must be inside of this place," said Double D. "Let's just hope that this place isn't large enough to get ourselves lost."

"Tempting fate again, huh? How much you willing to bet that you're going to be wrong on that?" Eddy asked greedily, knowing how the trend in the smart Ed's theories has been going in the opposite direction as he was hoping for.

"No, not this again," the smart Ed complained. "I don't want to get into another bet that will allow me to spill everything that I know."

"All right, that's fine. It's not like I was going to ask you about that anyway."

All three Eds are standing at the door of Foster's, with the three of them frozen in place at the mercy of the double doors. They look at each other to wonder who is going to open the doors, and the three decide to open the doors together. With a steady twist of the door handles and a push, the Eds open the doors to the foster and what waits inside is no trap for them, rather a large empty foyer. There is nothing in the foyer and the Eds give one good look to see that the coast is clear, which leads to them taking a step in and watching a scene fold before them.

As they step onto the white tiles of the foyer, they notice several different beings before them, the so named "imaginary friends," going about from one room to the next. There are many different varieties of friends, with them walking, running, flying, hovering, skating, and just standing there, and each one of them have a unique appearance to them. Ed looks over the crowd to see if he can find Jib anywhere in there, but to his disappointment he can not spy his friend.

From the crowd emerges a woman in her late teens, early twenties, telling the imaginary friends to move out of the way for her. She is wearing a green jacket over a white shirt that has three girls that look similar to the Powerpuff Girls, some dark blue shorts and light blue shoes. Her red hair is tied up into a ponytail, and from the Eds are seeing, she is a very attractive young individual, despite her being older than the three. The woman got out of the crowd, brushing off her sleeves and she notices the three boys standing at the open doors.

"Oh, since when did you get here?" she asked. "Never mind that. Welcome to Foster's. Can I help you with anything?"

"Uhh..." is all the Eds can say about the situation. They look over the woman to notice a few black imaginary friends who bare a striking resemblance to Shadows, which got the boys' attention. "Excuse me, but why there are Heartless among those imaginary friends?" asked Double D, finally finding the words to say.

"Heartless?" the woman questioned, looking over to the wading crowd. "I don't see any Heartless."

"You are seeing a couple of small black beings with large yellow eyes that look rather hungry enough to potentially eat one of the friends' hearts, right?" asked Ed's hat.

"I do see who you are talking about, but I am not sure that is what you are..." she stops her sentence to take a good look at Normadomus. "Are you an imaginary friend?"

"What... me? I am not an imaginary friend, miss. I am Normadomus, the famous wizard of this universe and I have somehow turned into a hat for no—"

"Well, please to meet you Normadomus, I'm Frankie. Now are you boys here to drop him off?"

"Lady, I told you I am not an imaginary friend!" shouted Normadomus.

"Miss Francis, what is this commotion all about?" a British voice asked in a stern way.

The Eds look in the direction of the voice and take note of that coming from a large grey rabbit, who is wearing a black formal suit over a yellow vest and a white formal shirt. There are no pants on the rabbit, as it seems any sort of leg wear will disable the rabbit from hopping, which leaves only the top half dressed. The rabbit is also sporting a top hat on its head, with its ears sticking straight up, and there is a monocle perch right over its left eye.

From what the Eds can tell, the British accent came from the rabbit, who looks like the kind to be uptight to have such an accent. "Oh, Mr. Herriman. These three boys here are apparently wondering what they are doing here," the redhead answered. "They have this imaginary friend on this boy's head..."

"I am not an imaginary friend," snapped Ed's hat. "I am a famous wizard for crying out loud!"

"A wizard, you say?" the rabbit replied. "Well, we've never had a wizardly imaginary friend here at Foster's."

Normadomus takes the tip and slaps himself right between the eyes, trying to imitate covering his eyes. "Look, what will it take for you to believe that I am really a wizard turned into a hat?"

The human and the rabbit look at each other, with each giving the same suggestions and the redhead Frankie gives their option. "You can try some sort of transformation spell to prove to us that you are a wizard."

"But I don't know any transformation spells! Plus, I have a curse seal that is preventing me from changing back to normal!"

"Well, if you can't turn back to normal, then we will assume that you are as an imaginary friend," the rabbit Mr. Herriman stated. "I will go get the paperwork for you gentlemen to fill out."

Ed's hat begins to go into a berserk like rage, spouting out curses and utter gibberish as the wizard spins around on top of Ed's head in anger. "That's it! If you boys need me, I'll be sleeping!" he yelled, limping back to turn into a normal wizard hat.

Ed looks up at his hat and reaches up to give Normadomus a few pokes to arouse him. With each poke, the hat budges slightly but only to Ed's poking. The tall Ed begins to get worry about not having his hat helping them on this world, which will make things difficult if they need to use a Blizzard spell in case one is needed.

"I think he's dead," the tall Ed said sadly.

"I don't believe he is dead Ed," Double D replied. "I guess he doesn't want people to think that he is an imaginary friend, so he decided to turn into a normal hat."

"But why with the fuss?" asked Eddy. "Is being called an imaginary friend such a bad thing?"

"Well, you are inside of a house that is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of imaginary friends waited to be adopted by some child," said Frankie. "I don't see the big deal in your hat not being an imaginary friend, but I can guess that he is attached to your friend there."

"There's a much bigger story behind it," the smart Ed explained. "We would like to tell you about it, but it will take up most of your time."

"Well, since you are here, how about you three like a free tour around the place?"

"If it's free, that's fine by me," the greedy Ed rhymed.

Frankie takes a few steps back and looks over her shoulder to notice one friend entering the foyer, and she walks over to stop this friend to talk to it. "Hey Wilt, you mind showing these boys around the place?" she asked.

"No, I don't," the imaginary friend replied.

The Eds take a step forward and they slowly pan their heads up to get a good look at this imaginary friend. He is a very tall friend, appearing to be much taller than the other imaginary friends the Eds had seen so far. He is red in color, with a visible "1" imprinted on his tiny chest, and he is only wearing large, black basketball shoes and a singular wristband. What is strange about this friend is not only his stature, but how he has a missing left arm and his right eye is crippled and looks googily. Oddly, the Eds are not disturbed by this friend's multiple stitches and feel that he is very nice in nature.

"Hello there," the friend known as Wilt said. "Please to meet you three."

"It's a pleasure meeting you," said Double D, holding out a hand to shake.

Wilt takes his single arm and gives the Ed a handshake in return. "Well, allow me to give you the grand tour of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends," he said, spinning around to go up the stairs of the building.

"Hey wait!" Eddy shouted. "I need to ask you something."

"What is it?"

"Do you know a little green guy that has one eye and hair on top of it?"

"Jackie Khones? Yeah I know of him," replied Wilt. "Why you ask?"

"Well, he's walking over there holding an item we are seeking," said Double D, pointing out the imaginary friend walking out from what appears to be the dining room while still holding on to the orichalcum.

"Hey you little bugger, drop that orb!" shouted the small Ed, drawing out his shield so that he can use it.

The short green friend known as Khones looks over to the Eds and notice that Eddy is giving the imaginary friend a death glare and the green figure takes off running. Eddy breaks away from the group to give chase to Khones, which is very similar to chasing the Rare Vendor outside on the front yard, but only two are running instead of four. The two are running all around the foyer, with Eddy sliding and bumping into a bust, knocking over the stand and causing Wilt to stretch out and catch the bust of an elderly woman before it hits the ground. After some moments, the chase went up the stairs and everyone watch the two disappear behind the wall and can hear the shouts of Eddy echoing off the walls.

"Good heavens, what in blazes is going on here?" asked Mr. Herriman, hopping into the foyer with some papers in his hands.

"It appears that Khones got his hands on some rare valuable thing and one of the boys here took off running after it," Wilt explained. "Apparently the boy chasing him is shouting that the item Khones is carrying is there and they won it from a Heartless."

"A Heartless?" the rabbit questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"They're these creatures that go about and eat the hearts of people," the smart Ed explained. "They have all varieties of forms, including those Shadows there, and we are skeptical that these Heartless aren't attacking anyone."

"Well for one, if you say these so call 'Heartless' attack people, they are currently populating the wrong house," Mr. Herriman said. "This establishment is instituted to the imaginary friends, and only two people are living in this house. And second, these friends that you call Shadows don't appear to be any sort of hostile at all."

The two remaining Eds look over at a couple of Shadows walking down the stairs and stopping in front of the group. The boys look down at the yellow eyes of the Heartless and they can see that these two creatures are not violent in any way. In fact, the Heartless are looking at them with four soulful eyes, as if they are telling the Eds to adopt them and give them a home to live in. This can be a good thing for them, if not for the fact that look like Heartless and have the ravenous hunger for hearts.

"Well, they may be to be friendly, but who knows?" the smart Ed said.

"You guys aren't not from here," Frankie said, raising an eyebrow. "In fact, I think I remember you two..."

"Yes, it feels like we were here before," Double D mutters, placing a hand onto his chin.

"Well, if you don't mind, I have the paperwork here for you to fill out about handing your friend over to us," Mr. Herriman said, displaying some forms to the smart Ed.

"My hat stays," Ed said, pushing the papers away. "We need my hat to help us."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You see, Normadomus here provides us with a healing spell to when we are seriously hurt and he has these defensive magic that Ed here can't perform normally," explained Double D. "Ed is more of an offensive type and is only capable of performing a spell that can enhance our speed."

"Uh, I would like to add but aren't you forgetting about your friend?" Wilt asked, leaning over to talk to the Eds. "I'm sorry to say it, but your friend is wandering around the house without knowing where he is going."

Ed and Double D look at each other and they remember that they are missing Eddy, who is busy chasing Jackie Khones around the house. With this thought going through their minds, they rush up the stairs and take the turn that Eddy made so that they can trace his steps and explore the vast wonder that is Foster's.

"Uh, should we tell them that this house appears bigger from the outside?" Wilt asked.

"I'm sure they'll run into someone that can help them out," replied Frankie. "The boys will be fine as long as they don't run into Duchess."

"Oh and Miss Francis," said Mr. Herriman, "you're needed in bathroom 13, first floor. There's a mess that needs to be clean up."

When this order got to her ear, the redhead shoots the rabbit a hateful glare. "But... But I'd just cleaned up in there!" she protested. "There's no way that bathroom could have got dirty in the past five minutes!"

"Well somehow it got dirty and it is your job to clean it up," the rabbit said, handing Frankie a bucket and a mop. "Get to it Miss Francis."

Mr. Herriman hops away, leaving the redhead to grumble under her breath and stumble with the supplies in her hands. Wilt offers his service, helping Frankie out by getting the supplies evenly in her hands and she thanks the tall friend. "Wilt, can you go find those boys and make sure that they can get back downstairs?" she asked nicely.

"I'm on it," the tall friend replied, getting ready for the run upstairs.

With Wilt running up the stairs to chase after the three Ed boys, Frankie is left to wander the first floor of Foster's to clean up the bathroom she just cleaned. "I swear that if this is one of Bloo's hidden pranks, I'm going to wring him," she grumbles.

OOO

"Stop, you thief!"

Eddy has been running around the many halls of Foster's, chasing after a little green imaginary friend who has somehow gotten his hands on a rare item. The Ed is trying to get his hands on the item, but Jackie Khones is proving to be a tough adversary. All throughout the chase, the two enter through rooms and hallways, going from one to another in a bizarre twist before winding up lost in the house.

Eddy begins to slow down, wheezing from running and he takes his time to check out his surroundings. From what he is seeing, he has lost track of Khones some time go, only from going blind to the rushing around into different rooms. The small Ed is standing in the middle of a hallway, which is line with door after door that seem to stretch forever, and the Ed starts to get the feeling of the hallway appearing longer than it should be.

"Eddy! Eddy, there you are!"

The small Ed turns around and finds his friends running up to him. From their appearance, they have not been running for as long as he is, and he can tell that he must be on the lower floor of the house. "What took you guys so long?" the greedy Ed wheezed.

"We got sidetracked by a little speech about the Heartless in this house," explained Double D, "along with trying to give up Ed's hat for adoption."

"Well maybe we..." Before Eddy can finish his sentence, he collapse onto the floor, tired from running all around the house. Ed freaks out from this and he picks up the worn out Ed in his hands and begins to shake him violently. "Please Eddy, don't die on us!" the tall Ed bawled. "We don't want to lose another person today!"

"Ed! Please calm yourself!" Double D stated. "I have the antidote right here on me."

The medium Ed pulls out the bottle holding the green concoction of Hi-Potion, shaking the liquid slightly around to stir the mix, and he pops open the seal to allow the drink to pour out. Ed takes a thumb and opens up Eddy's mouth, and the smart Ed tips the bottle to drop a little bit of the potent drink into the small Ed's system. After waiting for a few minutes, Eddy's eye open up and he slowly rises back up to my feet.

"Ugh, I never ran like that before in my life," he groans, rubbing the back of his neck.

Double D was going to point out the error in Eddy's sentence, but he drops the idea as he begins to look around the hallway that they are in. "So do you have any idea where we are?" he asked.

"What? I thought you guys know," replied Eddy.

"We slightly do, but we don't have a true aspect of what the floor plans are."

"Plus, we were running in the same hallway when we heard your panting," Ed added.

"So what you are saying is that we're lost in this crazy place?" shouted the greedy Ed, now coming to that conclusion.

"Just relax Eddy," Double D said calmly. "I'm sure that if we head back in the direction we came in, I'm sure that we'll get to the foyer and get ourselves out of here."

"First off, no way are we leaving without that orb! And second, we can try that, but why do you think I'm here in the first place?"

"I guess it could be from running around in a blind rage."

"No, I lost that little guy a few rooms back and I have been running ever since..."

"Oh... Well, maybe we can ask someone for directions," said Double D, looking around to see who is in the hallway.

"I spy with my little eye something that looks like a chicken," Ed said.

"Where Ed?" asked both Double D and Eddy.

The tall Ed points in the direction of what he is seeing and the Eds note of the friend before them. What is standing a few feet away is a strange mash-up creature that looks far beyond a normal chicken, but Ed is not worry about this. The friend has a body of a smashed airplane, a head that looks like a palm tree, a crooked beak, and feet that has the appearance of looking sunburned. Double D begins to wonder what kind of child can create such a creation as this... boat-airplane-bird-thing, while Ed is grinning his typical grin whenever he sees something he likes.

"Looks like something you'll see off of a lost island," Eddy muttered. "If I was lost, I'll eat that if I can."

The smart Ed gives the small one a disgusted look, before looking back over to the friend and telling the Eds to walk up to it. The bird thing looks up from whatever it is doing to notice the boys walking up to it. "Excuse us, but can you tell us on how to get to the first level?" Double D asked politely.

"Coco?"

"Uh... no."

"Coco?"

"No, thank you."

"Coco?"

"No!"

"Coco?"

"Again, no thank you."

"Coco?"

"With Stay Puft marshmallows, please."

"Coco. Cococo coco co coco cocococo?"

All three Eds shoot an "Uhh..." in unison, lost in wondering what in the world is this imaginary friend is saying. Double D can understand that whatever this thing is trying to help give them direction, but the rest is just unintelligible. "Uh... yes, we would like some directions on getting back downstairs."

"Co. Coco coco co coco co," the bird thing said, taking a foot and pointing to the right of it.

The Eds take this opportunity and follow the direction of the bird thing, going off down the hallway to get their way back downstairs. The boys walk for some time, passing by different doors along their way, and they can see no signs of the other friends as they went along. This does concern the Eds as to what if the bird thing is wrong and that they can be trap here to wander the hallways of Foster's for the rest of their lives. This is not going to come to that, as they notice someone at the end of the hallway and this got the Eds excited on seeing another imaginary friend that can help them out.

From its appearance, it looks close to a Heartless, but the Eds are far away to see it the details, but the friend notices them and it takes off down a hallway. The boys got to the intersection and looks down the hallway that the friend has taken, catching a glimpse of a ghost-like appearance to this friend, and this got the Ed boys thinking. With this in mind, the boys went down the hallway and ran for some minutes before cornering the imaginary friend in a dead-end and revealing his identity to the boys.

"Oops! I guess I should have gone through this wall..." the figure of Prankster said, rubbing the back of his head and slightly chuckling.

"You! What are you doing here!" shouted Eddy.

"Shouldn't it be obvious to you boys by now what our operation is?" the Heartless questioned. "I'm here on finding the Pure Hearted, and I am bringing him back to Father so that I can get myself a nice reward."

"Well you have to go through us if you want to find the Pure Hearted," the small Ed said, with all three Eds drawing their weapons.

"Hey, why fight over finding the Pure Hearted?" Prankster said calmly, appearing not wanting to fight. "I'm just like you. Lost in this eternal maze they call a house all to look for a boy that has the power to open a door for us."

"You do have the lost part correct," Double D pointed out. "We aren't exactly here to look for the Pure Hearted, but it should be since we found you."

"Well, I'm not going to fight you for it."

"What?" all three Ed boys asked at once.

"You heard me. I'm not going to fight you. I'm trying to find the kid, but I haven't seen him since I got here and I've been wandering this house for hours now. All I need is some directions and I'll be out of this crazy place."

"But aren't you a ghost?" questioned Double D, wondering about the logic. "Shouldn't you have the ability to phase through the walls and escape this place?"

"Wish I could, but I need my staff to do that. In fact, I can't do anything without my staff. It holds all of my magic powers in it, and without it I'm useless."

"You're bluffing," Eddy stated in a low tone.

Prankster looks beyond the Ed boys to notice a disturbing sight. He begins to panic and starts giving out brief signals, and the Eds look behind them to notice something off. Down the hallway is another Prankster roaming the hallway and this ghost looks down the hallway they are in to notice them and take off in the opposite direction. The Eds look back over to the Prankster standing in front of them and back over to the fleeing Prankster, now getting the connection.

They look over to the Prankster in front of them and he gives the boys a sheepish smile. "Well, I guess the cat's outta the bag," he said, giving a shrug before disappearing into a cloud of smoke after Ed hit him on the head with his staff.

"They're clones!" stated Double D.

"So we have to deal with that ghost now?" groans Eddy. "Why can't we just focus on one thing and deal with it?"

"Let's see. Getting lost in a house that appears bigger from the outside, having to chase down an imaginary friend that is holding onto a rare item, and going after a Heartless searching for a Pure Hearted," Double D listed off. "Sadly, we have these things on our hands and we need to deal with it for now."

"I hate plot twists," grumbled the small Ed. "Ed, we're going to need your hat for this, so wake him up."

"I tried, but he doesn't want to wake up," the tall Ed replied.

"I'm not going to get up until this house comes to their senses and realize that I am a wizard, not an imaginary friend," the hat replied, his voice muffled by Ed's hair.

"Look, we are dealing with Prankster here and he's looking for one of the Pure Hearted here on this world," said Double D. "If we don't do something about it, he could wind up in the hands of Father!"

"I don't want to assist you. You can take care of the Heartless yourself. You're big enough boys to fight him without my assistances."

"Hey, we need you!" growled Eddy. "Why can't you just help us out and get over this stupid matter of you not being an imaginary friend!"

"We do need your service in this matter," explained Double D. "Who knows what Prankster is coming up with, and if he does find the Pure Hearted here on this world?"

The hat begins to budge and erect itself back up, looking slightly tired from the brief slumber and has some of Ed's hair on his face. His zipper teeth look slightly out place and the hat gives the boys a good slurred stare before speaking again. "Well, at least I can trust you three," he said. "I know you know I am not an imaginary friend..."

"And why is that?" asked Eddy.

"Maybe it has to do with the whole world centering on imaginary friends," Double D answered. "Since everyone here is so used to seeing imaginary friends walk and talk among us, maybe Normadomus here takes it a bit offensive to be called something he is not and for him to act like this."

"Yes, exactly. You know quite a bit on psychology there, boy."

"I do have some knowledge about it, including reverse psychology as well."

"Uh, are we going to stand here and talk about random things, or are we going to go after Prankster and stop him?" asked Eddy, looking anxious.

"Before we go, I would like to do one thing..." Normadomus opens up his mouth wide and he begins to charge up a Blizzard spell. Eddy looks at this spell and begins to think of rising up his shield so that he can catch the spell. Once the spell exits the hat's mouth, ice begins to form on Eddy's round shield, and he can feel the coldness of the metal right seeping through. "There, that should give you better sliding and have a longer time sliding through the hallways," the hat explained.

Double D bends down and places a hand onto the ground to get a good feel of it. "Well with the floor being tile, you should get some good distance with your shield."

"Sweet!" stated Eddy excitedly, dropping his shield down and placing a foot on it. At the moment he drop it, none of the ice break off of the shield, and the shield itself is beginning to slide off. Once Eddy got both of his feet onto it, he took off from the others and shoots down the hallway, leaving behind a large trail of ice from the frozen shield.

"Eddy, wait up!" shouted the smart Ed, getting a head start of Ed as he got his feet onto the ice and starts skating down the hallway.

"Cheese and macaroni!" blurted Ed, getting up to speed before falling onto his stomach and sliding down the ice.

With Prankster in his sight, the small Ed is skating on top of his shield with no real problem whatsoever. He can feel the smoothness of his shield going along the ground below him and he can easily control the shield into which direction to where he wants to go. Following the Heartless wherever he go, Eddy takes out a yo-yo and begins to swing it around, getting enough speed for him to toss it, only to have the yo-yo phase right through the ghost and causing Prankster to disappear into a cloud of smoke.

The small Ed skids to a stop and rotates his body as he approaches another dead-end. The Prankster he was following was another clone, meaning that if he sees another it could be a copy. This makes sense to the Ed as with a house as big as Foster's, the Heartless needs to have copies of himself to roam around the place, but the real question remains: where is the real Prankster. Once leaving the dead-end, Eddy spies another Prankster roaming the hallways and he takes off after him to see if this one is the real Prankster.

Double D rounds a corner and notices Eddy chasing after the new Prankster, with him thinking that the new Prankster is still the same one Eddy has been chasing. With Ed closing in on him, the smart Ed takes off and follows right behind Eddy as they chase down the ghost before them. Eddy tries again with his yo-yo, getting it up to speed before tossing it, all before causing the copy to pop and causing the Eds to take a turn down the hallway.

"More copies?" asked Double D, with the greedy Ed returning a nod. "Where do you think the real Prankster could be?"

"How the heck should I know?" Eddy replied. "He could be anywhere in this stinking place!"

"Well, why don't we take a break from this and..." Before the smart Ed can finish, Ed finally catches up and slips right underneath the two Eds, knocking them over and hitting the cold ice below. Ed hits Eddy's shield and he continues to slide, going on down the hallway before hitting the wall at the end and allowing the shield to climb up on the wall. The others slide up on the ice and the small Ed catch his shield from the ceiling, after it has climbed up the wall and skid across the ceiling before gravity kicks in.

"As I was saying, why don't we take a break from this and explore some of these rooms to see if we can't find Prankster in one of them?"

"Good idea," said Eddy, taking Ed's head and knocking the ice off of Jumbo Jawbreaker.

The Eds got up and begin to explore the floor they are on, getting their hands on the doorknobs and opening doors to other rooms. While they are searching, they are peering into empty bedrooms, occupied bedrooms with one or more friends inside, a few bathrooms, a couple of locked doors, and the occasional slip-up on all three boys. They search all throughout the halls, checking each room after room to see if they can find any sign of the real Prankster in one of them, but instead found nothing.

For one room Ed is checking, he opens the door to find a motion clip of a black-and-white monster movie right before him. He watches the movie with a wide smile on his face, and Double D notice that some of the action coming from clip is spilling out into the hallway, and he rushes over to close the door on the tall Ed before he got burned. Ed lets out a whine of disappointment for having the smart Ed close the door on him, all before hearing the sound of rumbling and crashing behind the said door, meaning that Ed is safe from whatever he was watching.

All three Eds crowd around one door and Double D twist the knob to fling the door open. Inside, they look blankly at an imaginary friend that is living in this room. What is there is something from a low cast artist's painting, whose whole look looks nothing compare to the more famous pieces of art. This one friend has yellow skin, wearing a fur jacket, sports a fur hat, has a tail to that of a mosaic and has a long nose. Strangely, this friend appears to be two-dimensional, unlike everything else the boys have seen before.

The friend is sitting at a table, eating some soup. With the spoon up to its mouth, it looks over to the Eds and gives them a questioning look. "What are you looking at?"

The smart Ed slowly closes the door, leaving a crack to give the Eds one final look at the imaginary friend before shutting the door for good. They continue to give the same blank look for some minutes, all before Double D raising a finger and opening his mouth. "That... has got to be... the most disturbing thing we seen in a long time."

"Now where is that one stuff to clear our mind?" asked the small Ed.

"I think I saw some back on the ship," Normadomus answered. "I hope there's enough for all of us to go around."

Getting away from that one door, the Eds head up to one particular door, which is ladled in chains and has the signs of "Warning: Do Not Open" on it. "You think he is in here?" asked Eddy.

"I'll be truthful about it: nope," the voice of Prankster answered.

The Eds whip around to see the ghost right behind them, floating without a care and a large open smile on his face. It appears that he does not have his staff on him, but this does not excuse the fact that this could be the real Prankster. The Eds got their weapons out and the Heartless tips his hat down as he lets out a laugh from his mouth.

"If you boys want to find the real me, you gonna have to chase me!" he said before taking off down the hallway with some speed.

The boys watch as Prankster passes by door after door until taking a turn down one hallway and disappearing out of their sights. "We need to go after him!" shouted Eddy.

"I got an idea on how to chase him," said Double D. "Why don't the three of us link together and form a chain that will give us more speed when we are rolling?"

"Double D, you're a genius!" the small Ed stated.

With that plan in motion, the Eds got off running down the hallway and taking the turn down the hall Prankster took. With each boy getting enough momentum, Ed grabs onto Double D, follow by him grabbing onto Eddy and the small Ed clinging onto the tall Ed's legs, and all three got to rolling as a large ring. Prankster is waiting for the trio to chase him and when he notice the ring heading right towards him, he panics at the sight and he sprints off to get away from the incoming ring.

The two are darting down the halls, with Prankster in the lead and the Eds hot on his tail and each one of them are bumping into different items that align the halls' walls. The ghost looks back to notice the destructive force that is the Eds' tag-team move and he creeps up farther ahead, trying to get more distance between them, but the Eds are catching up to his tail. At that time, the two are heading down the stairs and out into the foyer, where Prankster shoots up to the ceiling and watch the Eds crash into the front door.

As the Heartless floats down, he laughs at the wreckage that the boys are in, and Eddy gives one good toss of his shield to cut the Heartless open and causing him to disappear into a cloud of smoke. All three Eds rise up from the pile, realizing that the Prankster they were chasing was just another copy, and this is getting on the boys' nerves about the number of clones they are finding. "Oh come on!" shouted Eddy. "Where is this guy anyway?"

There is the sound of faint laughter coming from the right of the boys, which sounds very much like Prankster, and they begin to head towards the sound of the laughter. They approach a door that leads to an office and they open the doors to find the said Heartless sitting behind a desk, with what appears to be legs on the counter and him laughing hysterically.

"Oh man, I can't believe I got you boys there!" he roared. "You should see the look on your faces!"

"It's not funny!" Eddy stated.

"Well, since you found me, I guess my time is up here," the ghost said, taking his legs off the table and got himself floating. "It appears that my search here is a waste of time. I'll see you boys later!"

"Oh no you don't, you hoodlum!" stated Mr. Herriman. "No one is allowed into this office without my permission and I clearly recall you not asking for my permission."

"Look gramps, I am a busy Heartless on a mission here," Prankster said, twirling his staff. "I can come in here whenever I want to, whether you're here or not, and I can claim this place as my own."

"Not while we're here," said Double D.

"That's fine. I'll see you later Ed boys!"

The boys rush up to the desk just as Prankster is fading into the background, and once they got to the desk the ghost is gone. They check around to see if he is still in the room, but the Heartless is long gone from this house. The Eds give up on their search and head back over to the doorway to head out of the house.

"I'm sorry about all of this," said Double D. "I hope this little excursion of ours didn't do any harm to the harms."

"You don't need to apologize," the rabbit replied. "I'm sure the friends wouldn't notice you here at all."

Eddy notice Jackie Khones walking by and he finally snatches the orichalcum out of the green friend's hands and into his. "I'll be taking that," he said.

"Rip-off artist," Jackie said in a deep voice, kicking Eddy in the shin.

The small Ed lets out a cry in pain, grabbing onto his shin as he toss the orb up into the air. Double D grabs onto the orb once it begins to fall back down, and he pockets the orichalcum into his jacket. "There. Now we don't have to worry about losing this again."

Frankie emerges from her cleaning duties, putting away the cleaning supplies into a closet when she notices the Eds leaving. Before they left, Double D walks over to one of the busts near the stairs and he draws out his Keyblade to get it ready to seal the lock to this world. They keyhole forms right on the bust and the smart Ed allows the beam of light to enter the keyhole and sealing the lock to the heart, clicking and disappearing from the bust. Double D returns his Keyblade and he walks up to his friends as they their way outside, only to have Ed to turn around and talk to Frankie.

"Excuse me, but do you know what happened to Jib?" asked the tall Ed.

"Jib? I hadn't heard that name in a long time," Frankie answered. "I'm surprised that he is still being talked about."

"Talked about? How so?" asked Normadomus, interested by the topic.

"Did you see what he looks like?" asked Ed.

"No. While he was here, he didn't reveal himself to anyone," the redhead replied. "In fact, I recall that he was here for only a few hours before leaving. And boy, what a few great hours those were..."

"And how does this do with my question?" the hat asked, now getting lost.

"Oh. I'm sorry, I got off-track there. It's just that Jib is such a smooth talker in his British accent, and that he looks so mysterious..."

"Focus!"

"Sorry! Anyway, some of the friends notice Jib spying on Mac during his time here, muttering some odd things I can't remember clearly."

"You can't remember what he said, but you can remember who he is?" questioned Normadomus, sounding slightly annoy.

"Well the words he was mumbling were hard to understand and most of the times they were utter nonsense," Frankie answered. "They're something about a door and a lock of some sort..."

"A door and a lock?" parroted Ed. "They're just like Double D's dream!"

"Excuse me?"

"It's nothing miss," Ed's hat replied. "We got to go now. Thanks for your time."

The tall Ed turns around and heads out the door, where his friends are waiting patiently at the archway. "What were you doing back there?" asked Eddy.

"We were asking some questions about Jib," Ed replied. "He was here and he said stuff about a door and a lock."

"So this could be that he might be after Kingdom Hearts," said Double D.

"Or he could be talking about any door and lock," said Ed's hat. "The woman said that this Jib fellow was uttering strange nonsense, so he could be talking about just a normal door."

"That may be true," the smart Ed said. "Ed was the one who created Jib, so that could be a good explanation."

With that said, the Eds head back over to their Gummi ship to head back into space and continue on with their journey. Back inside of the house...

"Miss Francis."

"Yes Mr. Herriman?"

"It appears that there is a mess up in the upper levels." The rabbit heads over to the supply closet and hands the redhead the same cleaning supplies from before. "Clean it up."

OOO

Zip-fly is leaning up against a trunk of a tall tree, which is casting a large shadow around the grass surrounding the tree. The Nobody has his arms folded across his chest, waiting patiently for the Heartless partner of his to return from his mission. He stands there for a couple of minutes before catching a glimpse of Prankster's outline forming, and he got up from the tree once Prankster finally emerges from the shadows.

With a hand clasping his head, the ghost wobbles over to Zip-fly as the Nobody approaches the Heartless. "Sheesh, I never thought those boys would act so rough," the ghost said.

"Mask did say that those boys do have some experience in fighting," Zip-fly answered. "If they have the strength to take Blitzer down, then who knows what they are capable of?"

"Yeah, but Blitzer was weak enough for them to begin with," Prankster said. "He never had the chance of even fending off Father if he had the chance."

"True, but still, that Ed wields the Keyblade and he is learning new techniques everyday."

Prankster is grinning his usual smile when he drops it to notice a burlap sack behind Zip-fly. The ghost hovers over to check the bag, seeing that whatever is inside is struggling around and letting out muffled cries. "So you found him, huh?"

"It wasn't easy tracking him in this world, but I found him. That's all I need to say."

The Heartless chuckles at this sentence. "Oh boy, Father is going to be happy with us for this. This makes us way pass the halfway mark, meaning we're just two shy away from getting close to Kingdom Hearts!"

"Yes. Once we get our hands on the remaining two, it won't be long before the Keyblade is in our hands and we have all that power for ourselves."

"Finally after so many months, I will finally have a meal for the ages!"

"And I will have a heart from a powerful man to give me even more strength to this body."

The Heartless lets out another laugh in excitement. "Let's get back to Father," he said in-between bursts. "I'm sure he'll give us something nice in return."

With a nod from Zip-fly, Prankster takes his staff and twirls it around, getting enough energy to cast a teleportation spell and sending the two beings and the bag up to the _Absolution_. The two left the world, boarding the ship and the _Absolution_ continues its journey through space for the remaining Pure Hearted in the universe.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Rush Arcane_ – a Haste based move that allows Double D to strike at blinding speeds. It can be perform five times before closing off with a devastating final blow._  
Super Slide_ – an Ice based move that gives Eddy unlimited slide on his shield before the ice breaks._  
Triple Ed Barrel Roll_ – remember Rolf and Wilfred rolling in the _Big Picture Show_? It's similar to that, but it's a much bigger ring.

OOO

So, this is the last we will see of creator Craig McCracken here in this story... but it was thanks to him that I earn myself a new favorite chapter. This was fun to write just like the Freakazoid chapter, and I didn't watch any episodes of _Foster's_ just to get this chapter done.

OK, I want to say that I want to base this off after the last episode, but I never saw on TV nor I can't find it on any video site, so I am taking a good chance of not adding Mac or Bloo physically in the chapter. Since the last episode is called "Goodbye to Bloo," I am not sure if that means that Mac is moving away forever by the end of the episode, or Bloo got adopted by a nice family, or there is a third option. Please don't spoil it for me if you did watch the episode. I want to find it and watch it for myself.

And I like to add: I was thinking about using some of the other characters that are popular in the fan base, but I figure no. Especially Cheese. Good God, Cheese. Just to say, me and my friends want to have our sanity and I don't want to take my anger out on some child's imaginary friend who provides a good source of memes here on the Internet.

... I like chocolate milk. And that's a true fact.

And so we also get three new Limit Breaks. You should know what Rush Arcane is based off of, along with the Triple Ed Barrel Roll (and I did waste that joke back in Chapter Eleven). The Super Slide... I figure that Eddy needs to have a (limited) time with unlimited sliding, and you can tell that this is going to appear more often.

Once Eddy gets his new shield.

And if you are wondering why I was talking about Double D and Ed being here earlier, I am referencing this one other fan-fiction I read, in which did feature Double D and Ed along with an OC as a Sora stand-in. They did go to Foster's for one chapter and the chapter was featured as one episode from the show, unlike here. And yes, Ed was Goofy and Double D was Donald.

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next we begin a look at a creator team's trio of shows. Try to guess which one I am going to do.


	13. Act II, Ch 13: Bellwood

And now here we are in the middle of this act, getting close to the halfway mark of this story. We're getting ourselves deep into this age of Cartoon Network, now stepping into the dark light that still haunts the network to this date. But that doesn't mean that I am going to add some crappy lame show in this story unless it is something that I want to knock down a peg or several.

Again, there are some good shows to come out of this era, but these shows are overcastted by the darkness of the crappy shows and the live-action... So what I am going to do is take one good show and showcase it here in this chapter. Oh, and think young for this one. At least I am going to add the better version of the main villain of the series I'm using into this chapter.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen – An Alien World of Ten

OOO

Fire bullets are spraying across the vastness of space, and a few shots from enemy fire speed off in the distance, missing their intended target. With a flick of the wrist, the _Midnight Hummer_ got into a barrel and a fire helix spirals to hit a few Gummi Heartless and destroying them. With others still flying around, one gravity round ricochets out of the barrel and blasts the remaining Heartless. Leaving behind only empty space, the Eds have successfully cleared that wave of Heartless.

Another wave of Heartless zooms into the picture, with the current wave being lead by a giant rolling wheel being propelled by jets. Eddy got an aim on the rockets and begins to shoot away, trying to cripple the wheel, but the Heartless starts to charge right at the Gummi ship in hopes of damaging it. Double D skillfully dodges the attack by taking a dive while applying more to the thrusters, getting the boys enough speed to dodge that attack. Eddy continues to fire at the rockets, slowing the giant wheel some more, but the Heartless does not want to go down.

"Hey Ed, you got any more rounds on ya?" the small Ed asked.

"Plenty up here," the tall Ed replied.

There is a light boom outside and Eddy can see that Ed has fired off a gravity shell at the wheel, which did knock the Heartless back several yards. Ed continues to damage the Heartless with his cannon as Eddy takes out the remaining rockets to slow the wheel down and deliver a devastating final blow. Once the final rocket chipped off, the small Ed orders for the _Midnight Hummer_ to spin and once it is in a barrel roll, two thumbs lock down on the triggers to send a heavy stream of fire bullets at the Heartless. With one single shot of a gravity bomb heading right towards the demise of the wheel, the results ends in an explosion that finishes off several other Gummi Heartless surrounding the large Heartless.

The two Eds in the turrets got out of their respective controls and walk up to the main deck to see on how well they did. "So Double D, how much Munny did we made off of that run?" the greedy Ed asked, rubbing his hands together.

There is a moan coming from behind them and all three boys turn around to notice Nazz walking into the cockpit looking green on her face. "I don't feel so good, dudes..." she said weakly.

"Oh, I'm sorry Nazz," Double D apologized. "We didn't know that you had motion sickness..."

"No, it's not that," the blonde replied. "It's just that I am not used to all of the rolling of this ship."

"Well, the rolling has some infliction in motion sickness..."

"If you're going to throw up, there should be a trash can somewhere in the lounge room," said Eddy. "Ed here will throw it out once we get to the next world."

"Clean-up duty," said Ed, reading off his job.

"So back where we were," the greedy Ed said, looking at the monitor on the dashboard. "How much Munny did we win anyway?"

Eddy flicks the monitor on and waits for the image to warm up, only to catch a glimpse of the number they obtained before seeing the face of a human on the screen. "_Greeting Ed boys_."

The small Ed throws himself back in fear. "Dexter, don't do that!"

"_I'm sorry about that_," Dexter replied. "_Anyway, the reason I am calling in about_..."

"The map you promised us?"

"_No, not the map!_" the boy genius growled. "_I am calling in about some weapons that I have been working on for you. Well... more for your short-tempered friend there_."

"Hey, what did you say about—?"

"Eddy, please!" stated Double D. "I'm sorry for that Dexter. You say that you have a new shield for Eddy?"

"_How did you know?_"

"Well, you said you made a weapon for Eddy here and his weapon is a shield, so that just led me to assume..."

"_Well you're right about that_," replied Dexter. "_It's a new shield that I personally synthesized, using a few materials around my lab during my free time_."

"A new shield?" parroted Eddy. "So where is it? And even for that matter, how can I get it?"

"_Please be patient. I have been working on a device to allow me to transfer items from one point to another, using a certain science that will probably bore you with the details_."

"At least I'll be the only one interested," mumbles Double D.

"_But in order for this to work, I need to have something in return, so if there is something that you don't need_..."

"We have this orb we got from some world," Ed said.

"_Orb? What orb?_"

Double D reaches into his jacket and pulls out the said orb to reveal it to the boy genius. Dexter leans in on his side to study the orichalcum better, with a few adjustments of his glasses and the occasional hums. Once he is done, he pulls away from the monitor and opens his mouth to speak. "_That'll do_," he answered. "_In fact, I have been looking for some orichalcum for some time now. Where did you get it_?"

"From a Rare Vendor," answered the smart Ed.

"_Ah yes, the Rare Vendors. They're quite useful when giving out rare items, especially with that Keyblade of yours. Now if you don't mind, open the hatch below you and place the orichalcum inside so that we can begin the trade_."

Double D places the orb onto the dashboard and he asks Eddy to open up the hatch nearby the driving Ed. Inside of the compartment, Eddy can see a platform to where the orichalcum is going to sit, a laser right above the platform and two disks that will be used to transfer the item, along with a strange collection of yellow goop inside of the compartment. "Uh, what's this dried up stuff?" the small Ed asked.

"_Oh that. I was trying to test the transfer mechanism with an apple and it exploded when I launched the program_," Dexter explained. "_I forgot to clean it out, but ever since I had successful trades_."

"Apples! Yum, yum, yum!" stated Ed, rushing over to the controls before being stopped by Eddy.

"_All you need to do now is place the orichalcum onto the stand and close the door_," the genius explained. "_I'll handle the rest from there. It shouldn't last that long anyway_."

Following the direction, the greedy Ed takes the orb and places it inside of the compartment, getting it to sit perfectly on the stand before closing the door. Once the door is shut, Dexter begins to input a few commands on his side, typing to where his fingers are a blur, and the Eds can hear the sound of humming and hissing from the compartment. A quick burst of light flickers from the compartment, follow by another flicker, and the noise comes to a halt as Dexter takes the orichalcum and holds it up on his side of the screen.

"_Go ahead, open the door up_," he said with confidence.

Eddy nods and bends down to open the door up. As soon light fills the compartment, he immediately takes out his new weapons and holds it out for everyone to see. Unlike the Jumbo Jawbreaker, which is now worn from being ridden on, this shield looks as if this came off the assembly line. Instead of a round design, the base is a square design, which will make it capable of tossing, and the patterns of a dollar sign and a cent sign is displayed in front. To go allow with these money symbols, the shield color scheme is similar to a dollar bill, with its different shades of green.

"_Now what you are holding is called Money Maker_," said Dexter. "_This shield will grant you the ability to increase the amount of Munny you earn in battles_."

"Now this is what I call a shield," Eddy said, using his new shield to get a feel to it.

"_Oh, and I also have a weapon for your tall friend, but I am going to need something else in return for it_."

"How about you take my old shield and Ed's staff in return?" the small Ed asked.

"_I can take your shield and possibly use it for scrap metal, but the staff wouldn't fit_," Dexter replied. "_Besides, I know there are stores out there who will buy those shields and staves for a good amount of Munny_."

"But what can we give away for you to have?" asked Double D, as Eddy is busy with his thoughts about money.

There is the sound of Nazz throwing up, coming from her insides tossing around thanks to Double D's piloting. The blonde steps out into the open, looking slightly better from before but not to her normal self as of yet. Ed's mind begins to work and he walks into the lounge and carries out the garbage bag holding the vomit of Nazz. Both Dexter and Double D are disgusted by this as the tall Ed walks up to the monitor to display the garbage bag.

"Will this work?" he asked.

"Ed, you can_**not**_ be serious!" stated Double D.

"_I agree_," Dexter added. "_There's no way I'll be taking that!_"

"But..."

The redhead notices the sadness in Ed's face and he tries to resist the urge of taking the disgusting item. He turns away to make Ed walk away from the monitor, but the boy looks over his shoulder to see the tall boy still standing there, and he places his head onto his desk and pounds a fist. It was some time before Dexter finally gives in and orders Ed to place the garbage bag into the transfer device.

In seconds, Ed is holding onto his new staff as Dexter is now holding a white garbage bag full of stomach acid and digested food. The boy begins to mutter about using it for a trap for his sister, but he orders for a robot to dispose of the bag, as he and Double D slide their face into their hands while the tall Ed celebrates with his new staff in his hands. With him jumping around, his hat begins to stir and he sniffs the air around Ed to catch the smell of...

"Is that stomach acid I smell?" he asked.

"Don't ask," replied both Double D and Dexter.

Within Ed's hands lies a staff that is much different to Nerd's Tools. Instead of a staff comprise of video games controllers, this staff is made of a whole piece of solid wood, painted a dark purple and navy blue. There are six rows of spikes lining the shaft, with three covering the top half and three covering the lower half, leaving enough room for Ed to use both hands for the grip. The butt of the staff resembles much like a demonic hand missing an orb, while the top end has a pair of purple bat wings, an ink purple orb, and two demonic eyes staring into oblivion on each side of the staff.

Ed is grinning ear to ear as he studies his staff, rubbing his hands all over it as Dexter explains what the staff is. "_What you are holding is Lilienne's latest creation... Dracula's Scepter_," he said. "_This staff grants you the magic spell Shade and increases the chance of the Darkness infliction_."

The tall Ed's grin is strangely getting wider, farther than what the others had seen before; going all the way to the tip of his ears once he heard the name of his staff. He places his staff before him, giving it a good look at it for some time before spreading open. "It doesn't _sparkle_!" he stated excitedly.

His excitement dies down as sirens begin to go off and the radar flashing the blips of enemies nearby and a world coming near. The Gummi ship has been drifting for some time and the Eds had been busy talking to Dexter that they didn't notice the approaching new world. With one look on the outside, they can see why the warning lights are on and for the Eds to be worry about this world.

Outside of the Gummi ship lays a narrow ship, and a powerful looking one to its design. A strange ship that has a large gap in its nose to where electricity is shooting in-between, with this orange lightning matching the brown that is making up the hull of this ship. The Eds look towards where the bridge is on this ship, trying to see what is on board of this mysterious ship, but they cannot see beyond what lies beyond the orange glass. The Eds carefully pilot their way pass the large spaceship, getting by in time so that they can enter the atmosphere of another suburban neighborhood world and not get tailed by anything this time.

OOO

Once in the atmosphere, Eddy got to his terminal and looks out through his monitors to make sure that nothing is following them, and he walks up to the controls to give his report. "Well, there's nothing following us."

"That's good to hear," Double D sighs. "But there was something strange about that ship back there. Something about it is giving me something to fear about it."

"Same here," the small Ed replied. "Hopefully those aliens aren't as bad as the first ones we faced and that those don't have robots on them."

"But I want to fight as a giant robot," whines Ed.

"And you will one day Ed," said Eddy, trying to bring back some cheer. "You will get the chance to drive your own robot and you can take care of those aliens for yourself."

Out in the open space around them, the boys can see that they are flying over another suburb, only this time this grouping of houses appear to be part of a small town. These houses remind the Eds of their home, and they pass over one section to be a cul-de-sac, just to remind them of that fateful day. Soon enough, the smart Ed eventually finds a place to land and he got the ship close to the ground to allow the boys to explore the new world.

With the bottom touching the asphalt, concrete of the sidewalk, and the grass of someone's property, the door to the _Midnight Hummer_ opens up and all three Eds step out into the open. Upon first glance, it is the middle of the day and there are no signs of Heartless anywhere. The cause for this, says Double D, that the Heartless are less likely to strike during the day as for what they seen in the previous worlds, but that does not explain why the first three worlds they visited had Heartless during the day. Even so, there are Heartless here and the Eds are going to explore this world to see where the keyhole is and take the Heartless down.

Now out on the streets, the boys check around to see where to go to explore. As they took another step, they can hear a strange spinning sound heading right towards them. "You hear that?" asked Eddy.

"Yes," replied Double D, "but where is it coming from?"

"I see a large beach ball heading this way," Ed pointed out, noticing the said object speeding right towards them.

"Uh, I don't think that's a beach ball," Normadomus said worriedly.

The others catch sight of what appears to be a large yellow ball with fast-moving black stripes heading right towards them. From what it appears, this ball is coming at them with a devastating force, and it looks like it could kill them if they got in the front of this speeding ball. And it is aiming right at Ed, much to his knowledge.

"Ed, get out of the way!" screamed the smart Ed.

But it is too late. The tall Ed and the ball collide, causing Ed to lift off of his feet and enter the hatch of the _Midnight Hummer_ in a blink of an eye, and for the ball to bounce roughly off of the heavy boy. Eddy draws his shield out in case that the ball is going to strike him this time, but the standing Eds notice that this ball is not a normal piece of rubber, plastic or other building material. The ball comes to a stop and unfolds itself to reveal a being underneath, one that appears to have a white underside, green eyes, a few black stripes running down, and a strange emblem in the middle of its chest.

"What is this thing?" asked Eddy.

"I am not sure Eddy," the smart Ed replied. "It doesn't appear to be a Heartless, Unversed or a Nobody, whatever one of those look like."

"Isn't Zip-fly a Nobody?"

"Yes."

"He was all white and all, right?"

"Yes," Double D answered.

"So if this guy's white, then that means that he is a Nobody," said Eddy, getting into a fighting stance. "I guess this gives us some experience fighting a Nobody then."

"Eddy, I am quite sure that this isn't a Nobody. By the looks of him… her… it, it doesn't have the same markings as Zip-fly, so we can't just jump to…"

"Hey, who are you calling a nobody?" the ball being asked rudely. "In case you should ask, I'm a hero around these parts so that makes me a somebody."

"Uh, we're talking about two separate things here," the smart Ed corrected.

"Besides, if you call yourself a hero, then why are you attacking us if you don't know what our job is?" Eddy pointed out.

"Gives me a reason not to know," the being said, hunching over as if it appears to getting ready to roll again. "You aliens picked the wrong day to be messing with Cannonbolt here!"

"Bring it on!" stated Eddy. "We can use the training!"

"Eddy, I don't think that this is a good idea," Double D said, backing away from the approaching fight.

"What? Are you saying we should back out?"

"Don't you see? That thing took out Ed, who is capable of surviving a house dropping on him! If he couldn't be able to survive that, then we stand no chance against that thing!"

"Maybe we could," the greedy Ed said. "Dexter gave us these new weapons and we don't know what they are capable of. Who knows? Maybe this shield's as strong as Lumpy."

The small Ed raises his new shield, Money Maker, up to protect the majority of him while holding the shield out. In case of the ball being hitting them, the shield will collapse towards him and he can push back to fend for himself. Double D draws his Keyblade out to use in case the ball being heads in his direction, but the chances of him heading for Eddy is high. The boys watch as the ball rolls up and begins to spin in place before launching at the Eds.

With weapons in hand and in the defense position, the two standing Eds wait patiently as the yellow ball heads towards them with deadly force. The boys hold their ground, watching the being inch closer and closer, before the sound of beeping can be heard. The Eds wonder where this beeping is coming from, all before seeing a bright red light enveloping the ball being and ceasing the being's existence. From the light, a young boy came out shooting, heading right for Eddy with a panic look on his face, and the two collide with enough force to knock only Eddy down.

The boy rolls away from the small Ed, clutching onto his head after impacting the hard steel of the Ed's shield, and the said Ed jumps up onto his feet to take notice of the boy before them. "So all this time we're attacked by some brat?" he asked.

"Well, this is a bit of a change of pace," said the medium Ed. "At least we found our first world where the people are fighting back."

The boy before them appears to be ten years old of age, putting him in the middle of the Eds and the two younger children of Sarah and Jimmy. The boy is wearing a white shirt with black trimmings and a black stripe going down the middle of his shirt, baggy green jeans, and black and white shoes. He sports some matty brown hair on top of his head, and the Eds can see green eyes when the boy opens his eye lids. And what really stands out for the Eds is a strange black watch, with white wiring and a red dial in shape of an hourglass, attached to the boy's left wrist.

The boy is still struggling from the pain he took from the blow, and Double D offers a helping hand to the boy to get him up from the street. The young boy notices this offer and he accepts it, taking one hand off of his head and allows the Ed to pull him up off the asphalt. Once up, Double D reaches into his jacket and pulls out the open bottle of Hi-Potion, telling the boy that this will cure his headache and Eddy protests this action.

"Are you kidding? He'd attacked us for no reason!" he shouted.

"Eddy, he was just confused about the situation," the smart Ed stated sharply. "I'm sure that he thought of us as one of those aliens outside of this world."

"What's this about aliens outside of this world?"

The Eds turn around to notice a still full bottle of Hi-Potion dangling right between the boy's fingers. They can see that this boy is back to normal, so Eddy reaches over and snatches the bottle right from his fingers. "If you guys had seen some aliens hanging out around here, the only I can think of is relating to Vilgax, but he hasn't been here for a long time now," the boy said.

"Vilgax?" parroted Double D.

"It's lucky that you don't know who he is," the boy said. "I'm Ben, by the way. Are you guys from another world or something?"

"Sort of," the smart Ed answered. "We're just wanderers looking for our friends, so maybe we may have the chance to find one of them here."

"Is that right?" the boy said. "Well, I guess I should say sorry about your friend back there. I hope I didn't knock his brain out of place."

"Who, Ed? He doesn't have much of a…" Eddy's sentence veers off as he and Double D now remember what happened to Ed and they rush inside of the hatch to check up on their fallen friend. Once they got inside, the Eds notice that Ed caused a mess entering the hatch and they notice a large crater in the back wall where he landed. The boys see the tall boy's body lying unconscious on the ground, which got them to worry about if their friend is really dead.

Double D rushes over and picks the fallen up to check for his vital signs. "Ed! Ed, are you all right?" he shouted. "Ed, speak!"

There is the sound of coughing and the boys look over to notice Ed's hat crawl out of the rubble and stumble out into the open. "There's no need to shout," he said. "He's all right after that blow. All it took was a Reflectara and an Aeroga, with some slight help of a Gravity spell, and he's fine."

"So Ed is…"

Double D can feel Ed stirring in his grip and notice his eyes are blinking. Once he realize that his friend is alive, the smart Ed lowers his friend down and allows him to get up by himself. As soon he got up, Normadomus hops over and jumps onto Ed's orange hair to get himself comfortable once again.

"Ed? Are you all right?" asked Double D.

The tall Ed takes a look around his surroundings, getting a look at where he is at, and he flashes his friends his typical smile. "I feel light," he answered.

The smart Ed lets out a sigh. "Well, that's good to know," he said. "At least you're back to your normal self."

"Define normal," explained Eddy, before noticing Ed acting like his cheerful self. "OK, I see where you are going with."

"Whoa, this is a nice ship you got here," came from the voice of Ben. The Eds turn back to notice the young boy in the same room, looking over the design of the Gummi ship. "Though it's not as great as some of the other ships I was on."

"Hey, this bucket of bolts got us out of a crazed pilot, a giant pirate ship and several robots!" stated the small Ed. "How could this ship not impress you?"

"Because I've been kidnapped by some alien who wanted me and a psycho to do combat and I had a ticking time bomb strapped to my arm that I need to go across the galaxy to have it fix!"

"A time bomb? What on earth possess you to have a time bomb strapped to your arm?" asked Double D.

"It's mainly this," Ben explained, holding up his left arm. "I'll explain everything to you, but you have to keep it a secret from everyone else."

The Eds look at each other, thinking that they should not trust this boy after attacking them when they arrived, but they are getting the feeling that this boy could not do any more damage than wreckage a bike into a mailbox. With each one of them agreeing, the boys begin walking away from the _Midnight Hummer_ and following Ben to where he said his grandfather is living at. As they are walking, Double D notices the device that is on Ben's arm, getting a strange feeling from the watch as if he once wore such a contraption on his own arm.

The four are walking down the quiet sidewalk, with only Ben talking as he explains what is on his arm and about his past. The Ed boys are learning quite a lot from the young boy, now knowing that he possess the ability to transform into an array of super powerful aliens all in the device on his arm. The name is call the Omnitrix and Ben says that he is a target to several different enemies during his time on the road, one including a fearsome enemy by the name of Vilgax. Ed asked a question about whether Vilgax is alive or not and Ben replies in a modest voice.

"I'm not sure what happened to Squid-face after I threw him into space, but I can say that we're not going to be seeing him anytime soon," he answered.

"Um, I want to say that when we're entering this world," the smart Ed started, "there was this ship orbiting this world. Do you have any idea on what this ship could be?"

Ben stops in his track and turns to face the Eds. "Ship? What kind of ship?"

"It's a very big thing," Ed replied, spreading his arms out wide to show the scale of the spaceship.

"It's, by my guess, about one to twelve thousandth to that scale," said Double D, "but I'm not sure on that."

"Well, it could be any ship," Ben said. "Maybe my grandpa might have an idea about you are talking about."

The small group continues to travel on, now reaching up to an open park and Ben continues on leading the Eds to their destination. After walking pass through, they can see a recreational vehicle parked and the soles of some man's shoe underneath. As the boys approach the recreational vehicle, the man slides out from underneath, revealing himself to be an old man wearing a red Hawaiian shirt, khaki pants and brown shoes.

"Hey Ben, how've you been?" the man asked. "Who'd you got behind you?"

"Grandpa, I told these guys about the Omnitrix and they seem to be OK about it," replied Ben. "They said that they came from another world that got destroyed by the Heartless."

"Well, that's too bad," the old man said, taking a cloth and wiping his hands.

"And they said that they have this weapon call a Keyblade. Know anything about it?"

The grandfather stops wiping his hands and the boys can see him flinch upon hearing the word "Keyblade." "Say, you boys hadn't been followed were you?" the man asked.

"Well it depends," Eddy answered. "We're being followed by a crazed pilot that wants to shoot us down and a large Heartless pirate ship that wants us for dinner!"

"Yes, but were you being followed upon entering this world?" the man asked, being specific on his question.

"Well, there was this large bronze ship that has these orange spheres on it…"

The grandfather got up onto his feet in matter of seconds, cutting Double D off and leaving the four boys out on the grass. The man enters the recreational vehicle and asks for the boys to get in, in which they oblige and enter the recreational vehicle to see what is inside. After learning that they are going to go pick up another person, a cousin according to the man known as Grandpa Max, and the boys got themselves comfortable in the strangely neat living space.

Ed is sitting up front with Max Tennyson, leaving Eddy and Double D to sit at the table with the young Ben Tennyson. The Eds argue slightly about who will sit up front, but Max took Ed by the shoulder and places him up front, and now they can feel the recreational vehicle moving right under them. With the small Ed's head resting in one of his hands and the smart Ed leaning against the back of the wall, the young boy leans in and starts asking questions to the Ed boys.

"So you guys know anything about the Dudes?" Ben asked.

"Who?" asked both Eddy and Double D at once.

"You know, those three guys that survived the war with the thanks from some random guy and they got their own show in return?" The Eds shake their head no in response. "Well, there are these three guys who are really obnoxious and they keep saying 'dude' all of the time…"

As Ben continues on with his description, the two Eds listening are picking up details that are similar in detail to the three boys that were back in Jersey City. Double D grows a grim look on his face as the young hero continues on and Eddy still has his bored expression on his face. The smart Ed leans in and whispers into the small Ed's ear. "Eddy, do these descriptions remind you of anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"Remember those three boys back in Jersey City?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"Just listen..." the smart Ed hissed as Ben continues: "So they recently had an episode to where they were trying to blow up a car with something stupid and then this giant robot came in and scoop up the car," he said, motioning to demonstrate the same movement as Megas. "You know what I am talking about, right?"

The two Eds are sitting upright now, giving their full attention now knowing that it was these "Dudes" that Megas picked up and tossed away. Double D is showing signs of nervousness as Eddy is displaying a blank look on his face, as the two stare at each other before shifting back over to Ben. "Why yes… yes we have," the smart Ed said with some worry.

"Oh. Well, it's a good thing those idiots are gone," Ben answered, taking his feet up and placing them on the table. "Why would a couple of those idiots be on TV in the first place when there's already stuff like that already out there?"

"People are picky," Eddy shrugged.

Double D shutters at the idea of what happened to the boys after Megas tossed them, not knowing what is to come to the three boys. Though they were a product from the Seeing Real Epidemic, it is still wrong to toss such innocent people all because you hate who they are. As he sits there with this thought loaming in his head, he looks over to the driver's seat and hopes that he can shake this terrible idea.

"Uh, excuse me," the medium Ed started, "but why you were such in a panic state back there?"

Max shifts his eyes up onto the rearview mirror and back onto the road. "I guess I should have explained about that back there," he replied. "I was thinking about the possibility of having either one of Father's cronies or, the off-chance, Vilgax coming taking not only your Keyblade, but the Omnitrix as well."

"What's so big about this watch thing anyway?" asked Eddy.

"Didn't you listen to my story?" Ben questioned, sounding displeased. "This thing holds the DNA of aliens powerful enough to take out a world if it has to, and I'm still trying to figure it out."

"Have you tried a different combination of twists to unlock like a master code?" asked Double D.

"I tried once, but I can't remember the combination," the young hero said, waiting for his watch to activate.

"And that's a good thing," said Max. "If you knew the combination, it'll only attract unwanted attention and we're trying to get the Omnitrix off of your wrist."

"What! You're trying to get it off!" stated Eddy. "Come on! You can turn into different aliens with this thing! Why wouldn't you want to have this off?"

"Because I want to live a normal life, that's it," snapped Ben. "I want to be normal for some time and not deal with any more alien business until the time is right."

"Well that sucks," the greedy Ed mumbles. At that moment, his eyes begin to sparkle with an idea. "Say, you haven't shown off any of your aliens. Can't we see what you have?"

Just right after saying that, the red dial on the Omnitrix turns green and a beeping noise emits from the device. Once letting out a moment of cherishing, Ben pushes down on a button to raise the dial, turning the hourglass into a diamond and a silhouette of a four-armed man appears in the center. As soon as the man appear, Ben presses his fingers around the edge and gives a twist, revealing off a few other aliens that he has in store as the recreational vehicle travels on down the road to its destination.

OOO

Back out in the cold vastness of space, the black ship of the _Silent Striker_ sails dangerously close to the side of the larger ship outside of the world. A small white blur launches off of the exterior of Mask's ship and enters the larger ship, causing alarms to go off and tens of robotic soldiers marching towards the intrusion zone. The being makes quick due on the soldiers, slicing his way through the masses as he makes his way towards the bridge of the spaceship.

As the being walks around the halls, he targets the bridge through some of the robots he defeated, and he was able to get there in no time. Once he got to the door, he encounters a large round Heartless in design to a Large Body, but in silver armor. The being cuts the Heartless right through the chest, causing the armored Heartless to disappear and leaving the door open for the being to stroll in. As he steps inside, he is greeted to several robots holding guns up, and he easily slices through them with one slice of his katana hand.

With the sound of metal hitting the floor, the white form of Zip-fly continues his stroll onto the bridge to spot a chair before him. The Nobody can see a large, tentacle-like green arm resting on the chair arm, and he round the chair to notice the rest of this sitting being. Sitting before Zip-fly is a cyborg of an alien, with a dark bronze color for the legs, chest, claws and shoulder pads. The skin to the alien is a light green and there are signs of red underneath the large muscular arms. And the alien is staring down at the Nobody with cold black eyes, with no signs of whites anywhere, and tentacles are dangling underneath a breathing mask.

"Zip-fly… isn't this quite the surprise," said a rough voice. "To think it was that annoying Tennyson boy attacking my ship."

"Vilgax, it's been a while, hasn't it?" Zip-fly responded, turning his hands back to normal. "The last time was that one meeting with Father, correct?"

"Yes, after I was captured by that tractor beam of yours. I can't honestly say that I was thankful of you for doing that."

"In which if you were to say that, it would be out-of-character for such a powerful leader such as yourself."

"Please, I don't need any more of your lip, Nobody," the alien known as Vilgax stated. "Your words are nice, but it is too much even for me."

"Of course," Zip-fly replied. He looks around the bridge to notice some Heartless. "So how are the Heartless treating you?"

You mean these pathetic excuses for minions?" the alien growls. "I can say that these Heartless don't know anything about getting the Omnitrix if I had to get even your crazed Heartless to go after the Tennyson family."

"But have you even tried to use the full potential of what a Heartless can do?" the Nobody asked. "Sure I am a Nobody, but I have full knowledge that Heartless obey the strongest hearts around."

"Go on."

"It's this. All Heartless seek hearts to eat and they go after people who possess a strong heart. However, they will fear those who use their strong hearts and will follow their orders to the nth degree, no matter what it is!"

Vilgax leans back in his chair and begins to ponder about the idea Zip-fly presented him. He has experienced the Heartless first hand on some of the worlds he conquered, but nearly all of them are afraid of Vilgax. It is true that he possesses an army of robots that he can program to not fear him, but the Heartless obey him out of fear. Is it possible that with his dark and strong heart that will possibly control even the timid Heartless into leading the black creatures to get what he always wanted: the Omnitrix?

"I'm sure that we can come to an agreement Vilgax," said Zip-fly. "The Heartless are a useful tool in your mission, and you want to rely on just your robots to get your hands on some mere accessory that allows you to…"

Upon hearing this, Vilgax leaps out of his seat and clamps a hand around the Nobody's neck, crushing down with strong force. "The Omnitrix is no mere accessory," the alien hissed. "It is a weapon created to house the strains of DNA collected from millions of specimens in this universe! If you can't comprehend the sheer power of what the Omnitrix possess…"

"You what?" the Nobody snickers. "You can try to kill me, but for what reason? Doing this out of spite will lead you nowhere close to completing your mission. I highly suggest that you listen to me before ripping me apart."

The alien is resisting the urge to wring the masked boy's neck, but there is truth into what he is saying. Vilgax releases his grip on Zip-fly, dropping him to the ground and giving him the chance to rub his neck. "Now, why go for just this Omnitrix? If you can recall our meeting, Father mentioned the existence of a Keyblade bearer and he is currently on this world."

"Yes, I remember that little talk," Vilgax responded. "What does some key has to do with me?"

"You must have thought that the Keyblade has no meaning to you in your conquest. However, what you may not know is that the Keyblade holds more power than what the Omnitrix holds."

"More power?" Vilgax asked, rising an invisible eyebrow.

"Yes. The weapon holds the ability to unlock hearts, unleashing hidden strengths from within and adding on to that person. Plus it will give you access to locked worlds, undoing the seals and gaining access to the worlds' most treasured secrets."

"But from what I remember, the Keyblade only allows to be wielded by one of a pure heart."

"True, but have you imagine a Keyblade forge for those with only darkness in their hearts?" the Nobody questioned, setting the bait down. "This is just a guess but I believe that there is this Keyblader wields a Keyblade that is suited to his dark heart. If you were to go out and get the Keyblade, it will become part of you and you can lead your army across the universe all in the name of conquering other worlds with just the power of the Keyblade alone!"

Vilgax walks back to his chair and sits down in it to think over what Zip-fly just said. If what he is saying is true, though it is a theory, this opportunity to wield a sword-like weapon, along with an army of robots and Heartless at his disposable will make people quiver in fear. Yes, he can imagine wielding a sinister looking Keyblade in hand and soldiers marching a worn torn street after conquering a world, only from wielding such a weapon. And this got him thinking…

"So, if I were to wield the Keyblade and the Omnitrix at the same time, I will be far stronger than with the Omnitrix alone!" Vilgax stated. "With the aliens Tennyson has unlocked so far will give me the added strength that I am pursuing, but the Keyblade will make that power increase ten-folds."

"Exactly!" stated Zip-fly, grinning a devious smile. "Of course, you need to kill the boy before you can get your hands on it, so you may want to send some Heartless to weaken the boys and you can go in for the kill."

The alien leans back in his chair and props his arms up so that he can rap his fingers. "Though I shouldn't be taking your ideas, your plan is typically simple," he said. "But whatever it takes to get my hands on the Omnitrix and the Keyblade, so be it."

The Nobody's smile grows wider. "Excellent. Well, I'm glad that we had this little chat," he said, heading towards the exit. "If all goes to plan, maybe we should meet up again?"

"Don't treat this as we're mere friends," Vilgax growls before the doors close on Zip-fly.

Once fully shut, the Nobody faces the hallway before him and continues his smiling, knowing everything is going to plan. A Heartless emerges from the corner, wondering about what just happened on the bridge, and Zip-fly slices the head right off to make the Heartless disappear. After some moments, the Nobody reaches to the hole Mask made earlier and he can see the Gummi ship waiting for him. Allowing the suction of space to scoop him out, Zip-fly lands on the hull of the _Silent Striker_, giving Mask the thumbs up and allowing the duo to fly away.

Inside of the spaceship, Vilgax is looking at the world before him, waiting on a robot soldier to come up to him. "You asked?" a robot answered, approaching the terrifying alien.

"Yes. Send it some Heartless and a few robots down to the surface," Vilgax ordered. "I want to make sure that Tennyson and his family, along with the Keyblader, don't survive."

OOO

"So this is your cousin?" asked Eddy.

"Yep."

After a moment of visiting some relatives of Ben's, the Eds are sitting before a girl the exact age as the young hero, even appearing to be a fraternal twin. Though they are cousins, it strikes the Eds odd to have such an outcome to being born on the same day but the boys have seen weirder things before. The girl in question is a redhead with the same color eyes as Ben, and she is wearing a blue shirt with a cat head on it, white pants and blue shoes.

"So… what exactly do you do?" the small Ed asked.

The girl looks at the greedy boy for a second before reaching into her pocket and unveiling a small book. "Do you know what this is?" she asked.

"A magic tome, I believe," said Double D. "So you deal with magic?"

"Yes. I got this from some witch and I've been learning some interesting spells in here."

"Anything about transformation?" called out Normadomus.

The girl, who Ben calls Gwen, flips through the tome and looks at each spell for anything relating to help Ed's hat out. As she turns one page, the recreational vehicle takes a sharp blow to the side and knocks the children out from their seat as Max takes control of the wheel and returns to the lane they were in. Double D is the first up and he notices a black ball rolling right next to the vehicle.

"We got Heartless!" he shouted.

"At least I had the feeling that this was going to happen," Max stated.

"Well, it's time to go hero once again," Ben said, getting up onto his feet and reaching for the Omnitrix.

"Ben, are you serious?" Gwen questioned. "You're going at Heartless while we're still moving? Don't you have any brain cells left inside of that thick head of yours?"

"Not unless I go XLR8 or Stinkfly on it," the young boy replied, twisting the dial.

"No need to worry about that Ben," his grandfather said. "I got something here that'll deal with this Heartless."

Ed twists his head and looks through the side mirror to see that the rolling Heartless is a silver and blue ball with spikes and two arms. His hat leans in to take a closer look before ruling in his thought. "A Spiked Crawler, huh?" he said. "I haven't seen one rolling like that before."

"You know your Heartless there," Max pointed out.

"Yes. Now, I'm going to have this boy take care of this Heartless." With that said, Ed unrolls the window and sticks his head out, getting out his new staff and fires a Thundara at max force. Lighting is surging through the Heartless, knocking it away from the mobile home and causing it to roll away into the distance.

"Yeah, way to go Ed!" shouted Eddy in glee.

Just after saying that, the vehicle takes another blow, only this time coming from above. Everyone that is standing is knocked right back down and Ed got himself back inside with a tight grip onto the brim of his hat. The roof begins to rip away as a robotic claw pries it open and revealing a tall red robot staring right down on Ben and Double D. With a free arm, the robot reaches in and scoops the two out, with Gwen saying some magic words to knock them out and Eddy using his shield, but no luck.

The two boys are struggling in the grip of the robot, which pulls them up closer to study them further. Ben manages to worm his arms out and gets the dial turning, choosing the alien that he is going to turn into and slams down hard on his watch. In a bright glow of green light, Double D finds himself on the ground and standing right next to a large dog-like beast with orange fur, thick forelegs, a shoulder pad featuring the Omnitrix symbol and strangely no eyes. There is only a mouth on the alien's head and a set of gills on its neck, meaning that this alien is blind.

"Wildmutt? Really, is that your best option?" Gwen asked sarcastically.

The alien turns around and starts growling at her, telling her in its language that it wasn't his idea in the first place. The robot quickly recovers from the damage and takes a swing with its good hand, missing both Double D and Wildmutt but only to have the Ed lose his grip. The wind pulls him back and he got his Keyblade out only to stick it at the edge of the recreational vehicle and left dangling as the robot is fighting Ben. Using every bit of strength he has, the medium and light Ed pulls himself forward as he fights the air current and swings himself onto the back of the moving vehicle.

With his body now on the metal, Double D pulls himself up onto the roof and got himself steady to prevent another slip-up. With the Keyblade out and Ben struggling with the robot, Double D gets ready to use a Fire spell but he notices a blue ball covering the robot's head and Eddy's shield striking at the robot in the upper torso. The small distraction is enough for Wildmutt to leap up and claw at the giant, ripping away at the armor and revealing cables and power circuits, making it easy for him or anyone to tear at the cords.

Ed got out from his seat and twirls his staff in hand, getting enough electricity going for another Thundara spell. He unleashes the powerful lightning, sending thousands of volts into the open section of the robot and causing the machine to shut down. With no power running through its circuits, the robot falls back towards Double D and rides along with the wind to crash down to the pavement below. The smart Ed is standing in direct range of the falling robot and he whips his Keyblade forward in order to slice the robot right in half and get both sides to crunch down on black asphalt.

Max puts his foot on the brakes, slowing down the mobile home enough to prevent the alien and the Ed on top from going flying. Once at a stop, Double D crawls down the hole and the whole recreational vehicle shakes as Ben jumps down from the roof. The door swings open and everyone inside pours out as they are wondering what they are going to do with a giant dog-like alien and why they were attacked. Ed takes notice of the Omnitrix symbol that is on the alien's shoulder pad and he reaches out to touch it, only to press down and have a blight light envelop the orange alien, reverting Ben back to his human self.

The young hero is looking at himself in confusion, seeing how he is back to normal self and not in his Wildmutt form. He shifts his attention to the tall Ed to ask him how he turned Ben back to normal. Ed replied by saying that he hit the Omnitrix and that caused Ben to revert back to his normal state, and this is getting Ben some ideas about how to use his device on his arm.

"Ben, before you go nuts with whatever you are thinking…" Max intervened.

"We were attacked by one of Vilgax's robots!" Gwen stated, finishing off her grandfather's sentence.

"Wait… I thought we got rid of him for good," Ben said.

"That may be but that was one of his robots, so if he is around…"

"Uh, what about that one Heartless and that alien ship we mentioned earlier?" Eddy asked.

"If that Heartless was a Spiked Crawler like you mention," said Max, "then that means it is one of the Heartless that…"

Before the old man can finish, several Heartless begin to appear, surrounding the group. Right away the Eds recognize the Shadows, the Spiked Crawlers and, oddly enough, the Robo-Cores, and there are a few new Heartless in the mix. One of these Heartless appears to be a Large Body but it is in armor, and another one looks like a miniature alien spaceship with a claw underneath. There is quite a lot of Heartless surrounding the group, but the Eds have their weapons out along with Ben getting his Omnitrix ready to go, Gwen with a blue aura emitting her hands and Max entering and exiting the recreational vehicle with weapons strap all over his body.

The young hero slaps down on the raised dial, enveloping in the same green light as one of the alien Heartless moves in towards the boy. Eddy chucks his shield right down the middle, slicing the Heartless in half as more close in on the group. Gwen utters a few magic words and aims her arms right at the Heartless, casting a sort of wind spell to summon a vortex and knock a few Heartless back. More Heartless fill in the spot and a bolt of lightning rockets right pass Eddy and Double D, and the two turn around to see that it was Ben who fired the lightning, not Ed.

Ben has transformed into a hulking monster that resembles much like Frankenstein's monster in the old movies, as such in color with green skin and only a pair of black pant and boots. He also dons gloves similar to his boots, which is giving off some electricity, and there are electric conductors sticking out of his back. Along with his grim look, he has droopy black hair covering partly over his fully green eyes, and once again the Omnitrix symbol is sitting on the chest of Ben.

"All right, it's about time this guy gets some more action," said Ben, noting his lack of experience with this alien form.

With some electricity flowing into a clench fist, a flying Heartless zooms in onto Ben and he punches the Heartless back with such force to not only make the small Heartless crash into the ground, but send the electricity through the Heartless and out to zap the others surrounding the crash site. The Eds watch in amazement by the attack but they snap back to reality when an armored Heartless closes in and swings an arm down on top of the boys. Eddy got his shield up and defends himself from the incoming blow and Double D casts a Blizzard spell to knock the Heartless away from the small Ed. Another Blizzard spell from his Keyblade and the numbers begin to dwindle down as the group works together to fight off these Heartless.

As the numbers drop, a few robots emerge from above the clouds, crashing down into the earth and unfolding to reveal their true form. Max takes one of his guns and takes a few shots of the robots far away, hitting them clean through their armor but not enough to shut them down. Ed decides to use a Thundara for these robots but he remembers that he got a new spell thanks to his new staff, so with a twist and a glow of purple aura, he got some magic ready for his attack. With one swing, the Ed cast his new spell upon the robots and Heartless, sending out an ink purple, torn aurora-like wave and phasing right through the enemy line.

Everyone watches to see what would happen next, only to notice that the robots are twitching and Heartless are vanishing. Once the circuit boards are dead, the robots crash to the ground, leaving behind craters to where they landed and scrap metal for those who stumble upon this site. The group is amazed by such an attack Ed made, and the two friends of the said Ed turn towards him to give him a puzzled and shocked look. Even Ed's hat is amazed by such force that attack made on the Heartless and robots.

"OK, it's safe to say that this kid here can learn up to –ra spells," the hat said. "I'm amazed that he hasn't learned Fira yet, but I don't want to see that happen anytime soon…"

"Well, he might as well," said Gwen, "because we're not done here just yet."

With their guard down, everyone notices that there are more Heartless emerging from the ground and the sky, and there is a large sphere heading right down towards the group. They are more worry about the Heartless on the ground than the sphere above, so the six got to work dealing as much damage as they can so that they can use whatever they have remaining to fight whatever the sphere is. The Eds are using their long range moves in this fight, along with Ben using his electricity, Gwen with her magic and Max with his guns. However this is proving more of a challenge as the Heartless close in and bunch the six together to have their backs against each other.

As the enemy got closer to the humans, an idea strikes Gwen and she turns to face Ed. "Say, you used a lightning attack right?" she asked and Ed replies with a nod.

"Since you can do that, why not using that attack on Ben?" said Max, eavesdropping onto the conversation. "He can use that to send a shockwave out onto the Heartless and clear things for whatever is falling."

Ed nods to this once again and he got himself charging a Thundara for a combination attack. Once ready, he unleashes the lightning, striking down on Ben so that he can conduct it and send it down to his arms. With enough volts to kill all of them, Ben charges up his attack and unleash the intense bolts upon the Heartless, vaporizing them the instant the lightning touch them. After clearing the Heartless the sphere finally slams down onto the ground, picking up a cloud of dust as the group stumbles from the force of the impact.

Once the dust cloud clears, the sphere reveals itself to be a space pod with large spikes on it and this has got the Tennysons worry. Ben takes a step forward and his family tells him not to go forward, but he charges ahead as they can hear the sound of beeping coming from him. Just as he puts a foot down in his running, a bright red light envelops him and causes him to revert back to his normal self and once again is sent flying across the road. This time he hits the hard metal that is the pod, missing the spikes covering the sphere, and he clenches onto his head in pain as he mutters out loud.

"I should really work out the timing on this thing…" he said, winching as the pain increases slightly.

The pod cracks open and slowly reveals what is sitting inside, which is making the Eds' knee shake in fear. As the pod opens more, Max and Gwen are staring wide-eye as to who is sitting inside and the Ed boys begin to feel their fear sending a cold sensation throughout their bodies. Ben manages to get through his headache and looks at who is inside of the pod and he quickly stumble back as soon he recognizes the being sitting inside of the cockpit. With a robotic claw clinging onto the outer edge, the being rises out of the pod and reveals itself to be none other than Vilgax.

"So this is the Vilgax guy you were talking about," Eddy said nervously.

"I'm amazed that Ed here is as scared as we are," said Double D.

"Too… awesome…" the tall Ed muttered, shaking all over.

The towering alien looks around to notice the group and recreational vehicle before him and he checks below him to notice the young hero Ben sitting before him. "Well, well, look who we have here," he said in his rough voice. "Tennyson. So glad that you showed up for this fight."

"Vilgax…" Ben responded, "but I thought I tossed you out into space."

Vilgax takes a hand and clutches around the boy's neck, hoisting the child up to the alien's squid face while keeping a tight grip on his neck. "Well, you should learn to kill your opponents before tossing them into space alive," the alien replied, closing his grip.

"Let go of my grandson!" shouted Max, aiming a small gun straight at Vilgax's head.

"Come now Max Tennyson, you think that measly weapon will harm me? I stand a better chance fighting your grandson than with that piece of junk."

"You're right, but you shouldn't underestimate a Plumber."

"A plumber?" echoed Eddy.

"You do, like, real plumbing jobs?" Ed asked in his normal tone.

"It's more like cleaning up alien scum than gunk in pipes," Max answered.

"Enough talk!" stated Vilgax.

"What do you want?" asked Double D.

"Two things. One is the Omnitrix and the other is the Keyblade, and I believe you are holding it," the alien said, using his free hand to point at Double D.

"But… But you can't wield the Keyblade," the smart Ed replied, noticing that Vilgax does not appears to be the type worthy of wielding a weapon like the Keyblade. "Only those who have goodness in their hearts can wield this."

"Yes, but have you ever heard of tales of those who can wield Keyblades made out of darkness for those who have only darkness in them?" the alien asked.

The Eds look at Double D with fear and he looks down at his weapon, wondering if his weapon was created from darkness and is only there because of the darkness that rest within him. He does not feel any different about this outcome, but the thoughts of having a dark weapon in his hands is making him nervous.

"If it's true if that weapon is forged from darkness, I should be able to wield it and add it to my arsenal," said Vilgax. "If you hand it to me, I'll take the Omnitrix and be on my way."

"Yeah right," Gwen replied in a sarcastic tone. "You'll probably use that opportunity to finish Ben right there and then."

"Of course," the alien replied. "So, do we have a deal?"

"Hey, don't listen to what he has to say," said Ben in a wheezy voice. "He's only going to use your key to take over the other worlds and destroy them if he gets his hands on both that and the Omni…"

Vilgax crushes down on Ben's throat, cutting the boy off and letting both Max and Gwen shouting Ben's name out load. Double D is thinking hard about whether to hand his Keyblade over to a murdering alien and hopes for the best, or just let him kill a boy only to get a watch that allows the user to change into whatever being he wants to turn into. He picks his head up with a serious look on his face and he steps forward to confront Vilgax, and his friends are shocked by his decision.

"I hope you know what you are doing boy," said Normadomus.

Double D stops midway between the group and Vilgax and he holds out his Keyblade before Vilgax, allowing him to study the weapon he is getting. And at that moment, the Ed cocks his arm back and tosses his weapon at the alien, sending it spiraling as Vilgax takes his free hand and gets it ready to catch the weapon. The Keyblade draws near and the claw snaps down onto the grip, catching Joker's Wild and now holding it up in the sunlight for all its glory.

However, as Vilgax is holding it up, the Keyblade begins to fade away into a beam of light and it disappears from his grip. The alien and the others are shock by this, including Double D, and the weapon vanishes right out from Vilgax's hand before reappearing into Double D's grip once again. The towering alien looks down at the smart Ed in anger and rage and the Ed is shivering in fear about what he is going to do, before hearing a shout coming from behind.

"Get down!" ordered Max.

The Ed did as he was told, ducking down so that an energy beam skims right overhead of him and hit Vilgax square in the chest. This blow is enough to knock Ben from the alien's grip and send the boy to the ground, coughing and wheezing as he recovers from being hold by his neck. Double D rushes over and got the fallen boy back over to the others, asking for Normadomus to heal his wound and he did it quickly so that Vilgax got back onto his feet.

"That's quite a maneuver there," he said. "However, I am only beginning here."

"Well, bring it on Vilgax," stated Ben, now back to normal. "We can handle whatever you throw at us and we'll send it back ten-folds."

"Such big words," mocked the alien, calling forth a few Robo-Cores and a couple of the alien Heartless. "Let's see who is the stronger being here."

Ben looks down at his wrist to see that the Omnitrix is still red, which is going to make things difficult if he cannot go hero. Gwen calls forth a magic shield that will block the Heartless and Vilgax for a short time, which gives Max and Ed some time to use whatever they have to deal some damage. Eddy decides to use his shield on Vilgax, but not even a dent is made when his shield hit the armor of Vilgax. Double D is still thinking that he could be wielding a dark Keyblade that is special made for his heart, but he shakes it off as he swings his Keyblade to the side and gets ready for a moment to attack.

At that moment when he swung his Keyblade, the Omnitrix switches from red to green and that cause some to turn their heads onto the device. "That's strange," said Ben. "I think your key helped speed up the recharge time on this thing."

"Well I do have knowledge of Haste, but I didn't use that to speed up your watch," the smart Ed replied.

"It doesn't matter. It's hero time!" Ben twists the dial and slaps down on the Omnitrix, causing him to go back into a green light and coming out as a different alien this time. For this form, he is a massive orange tiger with large muscles, two retractable claws on his hands, and a mean look on his face. Ben takes a look at his new form, giving his hands a good check through before opening his tiger mouth. "Well this is new," he said in a deeper voice.

"It doesn't matter," said Vilgax. "No matter what form you take, I'm going to take you down and rip the Omnitrix off of your chest or your arm if I have to."

"Hey, lemme tell ya somethin' Vilgax," Ben replied sharply. "No one tells Rath what they are going to do to Rath. Only Rath can do that!"

"I wonder if he can compete with Rolf for annoying factor," muttered Eddy.

"I heard that!" stated Rath.

"Come on Tennyson, show me what got," taunted Vilgax.

This got Ben wild up as he charges at Vilgax with all he got, completely breezing right past the Heartless and on beating up Vilgax. This has got the attention of the others as they clear the Heartless and noticing Ben's reckless actions of pummeling Vilgax with all he can throw at him. "Ben, stop this!" shouted Gwen.

"Gwen, I don't think it's a safe idea to go after Ben right now," said Max. "Just wait for him to calm down and then go in and switch him back to normal."

"Yeah, but we can't just allow him to be like this any longer," the redhead said. "I know Vilgax is bad, but we can't have a violent Ben beat the tar out of everyone around us."

"We'll go in."

This announcement shocks everyone, including Ed and Eddy as they stare at the medium Ed, who has a serious look on his face. "Look, if Ed here can make Ben go back to his human form just by hitting the Omnitrix, we should be able to turn him into another alien that is much calmer than this one, right?"

"That's a good idea," said Max, "but we don't know what the Omnitrix is capable of."

"Still, would you rather have your grandson go on a rampage and tear through everything that gets in his way or have a more control boy who can win this fight without using rage alone?" asked the smart Ed.

"I think we should get a cage big enough to fit him and sell him off," suggested Gwen, "but I am for my cousin's safety."

Double D nods to this and he looks over to Eddy to make sure he is in on this plan. Once he gives a nod, the smart Ed looks up on top of Ed's head to focus on his hat. "Normadomus, can you provide us with a Reflect to protect us?" he asked.

Ed's hat begins to think over the plan and quickly comes up with his answer. "Well, maybe not a Reflect, but a Reflectara should do," he answered.

All three Ed boys gather around and huddle together as Ed's hat opens his mouth and unleashes a bright ball of light from within. A hexagonal dome completely see-through surrounds the boys in a few seconds pass, yet it is strong enough to keep them from getting hurt. The boys take a few steps forward and they burst into a small run before arriving where Vilgax and Rath are fighting. Ed steps in and tries his best to wrestle Ben into the shield, but this is proving difficult and the others step in to keep the raging tiger inside of the shield.

With the boy turned enraged tiger inside, the three struggles to keep Ben down long enough for one of them to hit the Omnitrix and allow Ben to go into another alien. Rath is putting up a good fight and Double D and Normadomus use their Blizzard spells to keep the tiger down. After freezing his legs, Eddy rushes up and slams down hard onto the Omnitrix symbol, causing Ben to change from his Rath form into something different. The Eds breathe a sigh of relief and call of their shield now knowing that Ben is in a much calmer form.

Once the shield is down, Vilgax comes charging right at the Ed boys and immediately knocks them back. From Ben, a stream of green gunk shot out from the mouth of a large insect-like being with two sets of yellow-orange eyes, multiple sets of arms and legs, two sets of insect wings and the body similar to the boy's shirt. Vilgax takes the blow from the insect, getting cover by the goop as Ben flies over to the Eds and talks to them for the moment.

"Thanks for the help," the insect said. "I'm not sure what got over me back there."

"Maybe it has to do with what species of alien you turned into," said Double D.

"OK so we got you back to 'normal,'" Eddy pointed out, "but now what are we going to do with Squid-face here?"

"I say we get ourselves a giant pot and put him inside of there," suggested Ed.

"Mmmm, calamari," Normadomus said hungrily.

"OK, listen up, I have an idea that just might work," Ben said and the boys huddle up to listen to the idea.

Vilgax clears himself all of the gunk Ben shot at him and turns to the boys to strike at them again. Gwen calls out a magic spell and pulls the towering alien away from the boys, giving them some time before executing their plan. Max offers them some time by taking out a much bigger gun and shooting a few rounds at Vilgax in hopes of dealing some damage. With this plan working, the boys break their huddle and got into position, getting into a formation to where they have enough room to make each move. Eddy got onto his shield and Normadomus blasts a Blizzard spell right onto his shield, which is giving the small Ed the boost to start off this plan.

Gwen and Max stop their firing to allow Vilgax to catch a glimpse of Eddy, who is zooming right up to him on his slippery shield. The alien makes an attempt to catch Eddy by grabbing him, but the small Ed jumps onto the alien's arm and runs up to go right over him and land back down on his shield. Vilgax looks back in confusion and anger as he gets hit with a fireball to the back of the head. He looks back to see that Ben has change form again, this time being an alien out of hot lava under a thin layer of cooled rocks, a fiery head and hands getting ready to throw a fireball. Double D has his Keyblade ready to strike and Ed holds his staff as if he is going to strike with it, and all three charge towards the towering alien now knowing their plan is in motion.

Vilgax takes the moment to head right for the Eds and Ben, seeing how they are now open for a strike, and Normadomus opens up his mouth to start a spell. Vilgax braces himself for whatever Ed's hat is going to throw, however he did not suspect to hear the sound of wind from behind and the small Ed going up into the air. Another green flash of light and Vilgax shields his eyes from the light as Double D delivers a sweeping blow to the alien's legs and Ben knocking an uppercut into Vilgax's chin. Thanks to Ben's four-arm alien form, he sends the large robotic alien up into the air and is toss up thanks to Ed's inhuman strength.

Once both beings are up in the air, Ben transforms once again and he switches into a much heavier alien, with this one entirely made out of a green crystal. He dropkicks into Vilgax's stomach, causing the two to plummet back down into the ground and a large wave of crystals to form right out of the ground. The crystals bunch together and form a smooth surface as the plummeting Eddy has a plan to land once he aligns his fall to the crystal. Ben got out of the way as the small Ed hits the crystal and quickly zips on top of crystal, using the ice to do some harm on Vilgax's front side.

The alien got up from the crystal and stumbles slightly and he notices Ed getting ready to fire a Shadara attack, so the alien braces himself for the attack. However, he did not suspect to see a ring of fire dancing around him, so he got double the damage from the darkness inflicting Shadara and the heat of Double D's Fire attack. Once the damage is set, Vilgax is grasping onto his eyes and screaming that he cannot see a thing, making this a surprise to the boys knowing that they blinded their enemy.

"Was that part of the plan?" asked Ed.

"That's the Darkness status infliction!" stated Normadomus. "Now he can't see a thing and will miss most of his attacks."

Keeping to the plan, Eddy takes his still frozen shield and toss it at Vilgax, now knowing that he is blind and cannot see a thing. With the sharp corners piercing right through, Vilgax stumbles back and waits for the darkness to free his eyes, but he raises his arms to defend himself from any further attacks. Ben hits his Omnitrix one more time to switch to a mummy-like form and he takes one arm to wrap his bandages around Vilgax and reel him towards the boys. With a large alien heading right towards them, Ed steps forward and lowers his head down, with his hat jumping off of his head in fear of getting hit, and Vilgax collides with Ed's thick skull to feel the air rushing right out of him.

Double D appears right behind and uses a Blizzard spell to knock Vilgax up into the air and to have Ben to toss him up as well. Taking his Keyblade to charge up a Fire spell, Double D begins to spin around in a ball like the time he did in Nowhere, only to catch on fire and hitting the falling alien with a spinning fireball. The two are sent back to the ground, where they meet up with Eddy throwing his shield, Ed launching a Fire spell and Ben delivering one final blow in his mummy form, performing a quadruple finishing move. All fours back out of the way and they look at the beaten Vilgax resting in a crater, and all four boys are panting from exhaustion.

"We… we did it!" stated Eddy. "We did it!"

The boys are celebrating their victory, cheering loudly to the point where they cannot hear the sound of Vilgax getting up from the ground and standing back on all two feet. The Eds and Ben look to see that the enemy has yet to be defeated, shaking all over after taking so much damage, and he is breathing heavily from the blows to the chest. "You… you think… you can defeat me… with such tricks?" the alien wheezes.

"Come on, is there anything to keep you down?" Eddy whines.

"I can think of one," Ben said, slapping down on his Omnitrix for the last time. For this transformation, the Eds are staring at the legs of a massive giant standing up to the clouds above. The giant is white in color, along with some areas of him being white, and the Eds cannot see the rest of him due to where they are standing at the moment. The giant reaches down and grabs Vilgax so that he can bring the small alien and hold him up to the giant's face.

"All right Vilgax, we are sick of having you here on this planet," the giant said. "If we catch you ever here again, the next time we fight won't be as easy as this."

"And I swear Tennyson that if we ever meet again," replied Vilgax, "I'll be ten times as strong as your alien forms."

"In your dreams, Vilgax." And with that said, the giant takes a step back and pitches Vilgax out into space, just as the Omnitrix times out and Ben is back to his normal self. Everyone watches as the tiny speck that is Vilgax zooms out of this world and into the vastness of space to where he will continue to drift for the remainder of his natural life. Max decides to head back into the recreational vehicle and Gwen heads inside to get some work done, as the Eds huddle around Ben to look at the Omnitrix once again.

"So are you serious about getting rid of this thing?" asked Eddy.

"Yeah I am," replied Ben. "I'm tired of going hero and having to deal with that sort of thing. I just want to live a normal life and have this safely store away to, maybe one day, I can use this again."

"So if you're not going to be using it, how about giving it to us?" the greedy Ed offered.

"Eddy, I'm not sure that Ben here is going to trust the Omnitrix to a greedy person such as yourself, an intellect as myself, and Ed," said Double D.

"Aw, and I wanted to transform into several of those aliens," whines Ed.

"Hey boys, do you know something about this?" Max called out from inside of the recreational vehicle.

The Eds rush around to the side to see the Tennyson grandfather standing in the doorway, holding what appears to be a summoning charm. This charm has an unusual coloring with a black chain, a gold ring and a red stone. Inside of the stone is a blue orb with nine white dots in a square. Double D explains what the charm is to Max and he tosses the charm to the boy, saying that he does not have the needs to own it.

With a new charm in his pocket, the boys load up inside of the recreational vehicle and Max drives them back to their ship so that they can leave and go back on their journey across the universe. After a few minutes riding around, the Eds are back at their Gummi ship and the three give their farewells to the Tennysons as they board the ship and set sail for the heavens. Once out, Double D takes out their third charm and he gives it a good feel before putting it back in his pocket with the other charms.

"You know, I'm just wondering what we are going to do with these charms," said Eddy. "We got three of these things already and we haven't used one of them!"

"Relax Eddy," Double D responded. "I'm sure when the moment arrives, we'll use one of these charms and then we can find out what they can do."

"Hey look, there's what's-his-name," stated Ed, pointing out into space.

The boys look out through the screen to notice the body of Vilgax somersaulting as he continues his flight in space and fly away from this world. With a smile on their faces and sitting down in their seats, Double D grabs onto the thrust and increases speed as they move away from Vilgax's ship and onto the next world.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Ten x Three (10 x 3)_ – A special limit that unlocks the Omnitrix to allow Ben to use all of his aliens and use them to aid the Eds in making a combination attack before dealing a four-way final blow.

OOO

OK, that should be the last hate message of the Dudes coming out of this story. It doesn't mean that I'm not going to pick on them.

Man, I think this chapter is a bit dark, even for the original series of _Ben 10_. I mean that one joke in the beginning scene, and the mentioned Dudes, plus… yeah, I think this is getting dark. And what am I saying about that? I'm doing my best at pushing the rating for a story and I already did that with my last story! If I can't get a little dark for a K+ story, then no one can. Well, at least those with little experience in writing…

And if you are wondering about what the little alien Heartless is, I'm calling it an IFH, meaning an Indefinable Flying Heartless. Really all UFO should be called an IFO because calling something "Unidentified" is being a hypocrite.

So when reading this, you were obviously thinking that I was going to do the original Vilgax from the original show, right? And you can't be any more right on that! Of course I am trying to keep away from going with a plot from an episode and completely avoid alternative continuity, but since this takes place after the original series ended and before Vilgax appeared in _Alien Force_, I thought that I should make this a possibility. Besides, Ben remembers throwing Vilgax into space by using Waybig, so I am keeping within the storyline but not changing everything like they do within the games.

And as for Rath making an appearance in this chapter… call it whatever you want, I'm just saying that this is a joke but he's awesome. Say Rath isn't awesome and I'll make sure that I'll find your address and have Ben go Rath all over you.

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is a painkiller to me. Oh, and believe me on this: you will see a charm in action in no time. In fact, I got one plan coming up for the end of the act. Just you wait…


	14. Act II, Ch 14: Jump City

Well, I said back at the end of Chapter Thirteen that this chapter was going to be a painkiller for me… I was wrong. Really I was saying that this is going to be killing me with pain because I couldn't think of a good plot to fit in the middle of this chapter!

But thanks to my friend Josh, he has given me the perfect villain for this chapter and I am going to use the best for this chapter. How so? Well, if you are familiar with the DC Universe and watch _Toonami_ during its time on Cartoon Network, you should be familiar with the show that I am going to do. Believe me on this one: I am not going to take the main villain only for the fact that I don't want to go into alternative continuity and make this like the other _Kingdom Hearts_ stories, so I am changing things up a bit by…

*static*

What the…? What's going…?

*static* **?**: Hello, me duckys! You think that you're going to be writing this chapter? Well guess what! I'm going to be taking over and claim it as the rightful ownership of Mad Mod!

Oh… crap. Excuse me for one moment…

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen – In the Name of the Insane!

OOO

_Drip, drip_ goes the water drops, dropping down from the dark heavens above with no signs of the twinkling stars anywhere. A body rests along the watery ground, floating along the snail-pace current as he can feel his clothes not getting wet. It is cold resting on top of the water, but oddly he felt this feeling before and it seems to comfort him, though he is not certain why for that matter. All he knows is that he is floating in a middle of a vast ocean of blackness with the current drifting him somewhere…

"Rise boy."

The boy stirs when hearing this and he did as he was commanded, rising up from the water and finds himself sitting on a stained glass platform. The boy immediately recognizes this stained glass pattern and recalls seeing this from the dream he had a long time ago. On the ground he can see his friends group together in five different circles, with two of them traveling with him, one is fighting them, one he is searching for, and the last is an unknown boy. In the middle of this star pattern is the boy himself and out to his side are his Keyblade and another Keyblade he has yet to see

_What… what is this place?_

"This… this is your Awakening."

_My… Awakening? What do you mean by that?_

The boy looks in front of him to see the same robed figure that he met back his room. This mysterious person still has its hood over its head, concealing his or her identity from the boy, yet the voice sounds much like a man. "Double D, your training as a Keyblade warrior is not over after your first Awakening. You see, as time progresses, you'll unlock special abilities and learn powerful magic spells during your time, and even perhaps reveal your true Keyblade."

_My true Keyblade?_

"Yes. A Keyblade that will fit perfectly to your heart and co-consigns with you as you continue to live," the robed figure replied.

_So how can I acquire such a weapon?_

"Through locking the worlds from the darkness, conquering over great evil, receiving the friendship of others, and clearing your heart of the unnecessary darkness plaguing you."

_Unnecessary… darkness?_

"People are born into this world with light and darkness in their hearts. However, during the time they walk their worlds, they are succumb to different factors that stray them from their intended paths. Everyone needs to have a balance of darkness and light inside of them, but if one side tips too far, it could lead to disastrous results."

_You seem to know a lot about these sorts of events. Can you tell me all that you know?_

The robed figure silently stands where he remain, staring deep into the boy's soul to see what he truly is before turning around. "I'm sorry but I can't reveal all that I know."

_Why not?_

"In order for this to work, you need to learn these events for yourself and learn through trial-and-error before taking that path and walking down it."

_But I have to ask, what about that one door that was in my room?_

"The door you speak of does not exist within this universe anymore. At least it was before it was destroyed."

_So this door is still exists? But how is that possible?_

"Step through the door and you'll see for your very eyes."

The cloak figure moves to the side and reveals a shiny column of light glowing at the edge of the glass platform. In the light is a white and shiny door, made out of an unknown wood, and there are etchings of floral and hearts on the sides. Double D walks up to the door and notices that there is no doorknob to this door, meaning that he is not going anywhere for the moment so he turns to the robed figure to see him walk away.

_Hold on! I need to ask you some more questions?_

"What is there to be asked? I've told you all that you need to know for now so just touch the door and be on your way."

_Just who are you and why are you following me?_

The robed figure stops walking and turns around to face Double D with the same look under his cloak. "I am just a wandering soul traveling across the dimensions. There's nothing else you should know about me."

_What exactly lies behind that door back in my room? What lies behind this door?_

"The door before you will give you answers to the questions you are asking. However I cannot permit to reveal the answer to lies behind the one door… If you must know, step through that door and see for yourself."

The robed figure points to the white door and Double D turns back to face it once again. There is something inside of him that is preventing him from opening the door, knowing and feeling that there is a tremendous evil waiting behind the door, but he takes a step forward and reaches out to touch it. He needs answers to the questions rolling in his head and if they lie beyond this door, he is going to get them once he opens the door. With a hand pressing against the cold smooth wood of the door, a light encase the door and it disappears before the boy before revealing a dark passageway.

Double D looks behind him to see if the robed figure is still on the glass platform, but only he is left standing. Alone, the boy steps through the doorway and travels down the black passageway, only to find himself walking onto a cliff and a blast of hot air sailing right pass him. He looks out to see a world of destruction, with lava pools spread across the land, bones scatter among dead remains of people and animals, Shadows and two taller versions walk among the dead to see if any hearts survive, and in the middle is a towering man. Double D immediately calls for Joker's Wild but nothing is coming out and he notices the man staring right down at him.

"_Ah yes… Double D. I'm so glad to see you once again…_"

_Who… Who are you?_

"_My identity must remain a secret for now, as I don't want to spoil the fun I am going to have later on_."

_But… I don't understand. What happened to this world?_

"_Can't you see what this world used to be? It's your world!_"

The Ed's eyes lit up in fear and he runs up to the edge to look down at his home below. As he can see, houses are in ruin and remains of once living creatures are left lying to rot and for Shadows to pick at them. Tears begin to roll down the boy's face as the towering man in shadows comes down to Double D's level and meet the boy face-to-face, all while laughing at his misery.

"_Take a look Double D. This was once the world you and your friends lived in. Now it is nothing more than a wasteland only for the Shadows, Neoshadows and Novashadows to wander and eat at whatever they can get their claws on_."

_This… This can't be real. This is all in my head… None of this is possible!_

"_Oh really? Why do you think I'm here? I'm in search of that door, and so are you, so why do you think your home is here?_"

_I have no idea what you are talking about! What door could you possibly be searching for?_

"_Ain't it obvious to you yet? I seek the door that will lead me to my final goal and if the rumors are true, you are the one that I seek to possess it_."

At that moment, the Ed's hands begin to shake in anger and he stops his tear flow as he looks up into the man's face with a determined look on his face. With a large visible smile, the towering shadow launches back as Double D calls forth his Keyblade and sets himself up for a Light attack. A swing forward and he blasts a single beam right at the man, waiting in anticipation to see what will this do, but the man still has a smile on his face as he backhands the light and negates the attack.

"_Really? That was the strongest attack in your arsenal? They don't call me the Destroyer of Light for nothing!_"

_But that attack…_

"… _Is nothing to what I am going to do to you!_"

The tone of the man changes from calm and persuasive to dark, sinister and downright creepy, as the man's form changes from that of a man to a massive demon with colossal wings and massive horns. With the transformation complete, the demon stares right down at Double D and charges forward, with only a Keyblade to defend himself from a shadowy demon rushing right towards him. However, the shaft begins to spark electricity and Double D recognizes this as a Thunder spell, so he unleashes his new attack upon the demon and zapping him back. With bolts of electricity jumping across his shadow body, the demon puts a smirk on his face and begins to laugh in a demonic tone.

"_That's real impressive Double D. However, you still are no match to the might of what I have in store for you and your friends_."

_Whatever it is, me and my friends will get stronger and will defeat whoever you are_!

"_Good luck with that plan. You will do as you must since my time is up here. The next time we meet, I will seek the answer from you…_"

The demon begins to sink down into the ground below, transforming himself back into a man as Double D watches him go down into the ground. He can still see the sinister grin that is on the shadow man's face and the image forever burn into his skull as the land before him darkens and fades into the blackness. Once again alone in the darkness, Double D treks on only to see the form of Mask standing right before him and this got his heart racing. Running up to the teen, he place a hand on his shoulder and the teen turns around to reveal his face still cover by his mask.

"So Double D… you're here as well."

_Huh? What do you mean by that? I thought that this was my Awakening._

"It's mine as well, but I'm not sure on how we ended up meeting each other."

_This is getting very strange…_

"Indeed."

_So what are you doing here? Are you trying to kill me like you tried before?_

"What? Kill you? No, I wouldn't!"

_But what happened back in Traverse Town?_

"Look, there's so many things going on right now that even I can't explain it all. All I know is that we're fighting a much bigger enemy in the end and we need to learn who it is before the tables turn into his favor."

_So, you have any idea who was that man?_

"I have no idea who you are talking about. I was running up the stairs fighting Heartless before meeting you."

_All right so you wouldn't know about a shadow man with a purple outline that speaks with a…_

"Hold on. A shadow man, you say? Yeah I know of him too!"

_You do?_

"Yes! I saw him when I got here and I chased after him, but he sent his Heartless after me. I'm not sure why he was there, but if this has to do with us, then there must be something linking all of us together."

_I am getting a headache all of a sudden… There's so many questions left unanswered…_

"I know. In due time, we'll meet again on friendlier terms. But for now we are enemies and we must keep this fight going strong."

Double D nods to this and the two clasps hands to form a truce between the two boys. The Ed knows that Mask is still the same boy he knows from the cul-de-sac and the one who helped him some time ago, but with him under contract with Father, this makes them enemies. They release from their grasp and turn their backs on each other, walking away as they head back to their realities, coming through after walking in another Awakening.

OOO

With the shouts of his name repeating over and over, the Ed being called wakes up from his slumber to notice a small puddle of drool where he rested his head and can fully hear the shouts of Eddy right next to him. Double D is startle about the sight of salvia and Eddy's shouting before he realizes that he was out during that Awakening, and he checks around to notice everyone is in the cockpit and the sirens going off.

"It's about time you woke up," said Eddy, not sounding pleased.

"I told you he was going through an Awakening," said Normadomus. "It's best that we leave him be and not worry about it any further."

The smart Ed grasps onto his head, shuddering from the minor pain of a headache before lifting his face to address the small crowd. "What happened when I was out?" he asked.

"Oh, it's not like we were shot at by the same bozo who was following us ever since we got out into space!" Eddy replied sarcastically. "We're doing fine until you fell asleep! Ed here tried to get his hands on the wheel but I got him to help out shooting that guy following us."

"I was told on how to fly this thing," said Nazz, "so I did my best into flying us to this one place."

Double D spins around to look at the new world before him, seeing large buildings and a strange T-shape building as the center of this world. There is the sound of the radar beeping and the Ed looks down to notice a blue blip on screen, meaning that one of the cul-de-sac children is here and that they can get that one child. Finally grasping that the ship has taken damage, he looks at the monitors to notice that the vast majority of the ship has been struck, meaning that they are going to be grounded for some time.

"Let's hope Kevin is somewhere on this world," said Double D as he begins to descend into the world's atmosphere.

With the thrusters going at half the speed needed for space travel, the Gummi ship enters the world to reveal the children a vast city sitting on a stretch of a body of water. With the bright blue water contrasting the grey city next to it, the Eds and Nazz look out to see the T-shape building resting on a small island, with what appears to be large sharp rocks circling all around. With a helicopter landing spot in mind and seeing a door that will lead them down, Double D lands the ship down on the rooftop and opens the hatch for the Eds to step out.

With their first steps onto another city rooftop, the freshening air hits the boys and they breathe the inviting smell that is whatever this city is called. Ed rushes over to the edge to take a look down at the street below, and he can the people walking along the streets, all in hope to find one of their friends among the crowd. Double D calls over for Ed to get to the door and head on down to street level, where they will begin their search and take a look around the city before them.

After a few minutes of climbing down some stairs and taking an elevator down the rest of the ways, the boys step out onto the sidewalk and notice nothing out of the ordinary so far. They are expecting to see some Heartless roaming around but nothing as of yet, except for a strange vehicle launching over a hill follow by a small group of what appears to be heroes. This is the chance that the Eds are looking for and they rush out towards the street, all before ramming into one person and knocking him down to the ground.

"Hey, watch where you dorks are…" the boy said before realizing he is talking to. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well, at least you called it," said Eddy, nudging Double D slightly to note saying the boy they are looking earlier. The boy before them is roughly the same age as them, maybe one year older, and he has the same look the Eds are familiar with. Kevin is wearing a green long-sleeve with a pair of black shorts, black shoes with visible socks, and a red baseball cap facing backwards. There are some strands of his red hair sticking out, meaning that he was also affected the same way the Eds did when they came to this existence.

"So why are you three here?" asked Kevin.

"Well, there's two reasons for that," explained Double D. "The first is that we're going about to find the other children of the cul-de-sac that somehow ended up on other worlds, and the second is that we need your help."

"My help? Why do you need my help?"

"You've helped us with fixing stuff before, right?" questioned Eddy. "We got this ship that's completely banged up and we're hoping that you can fix it."

The boy mechanic takes a look at the Eds, placing a hand on his shovel-like chin as he thinks about it. "I'm not sure if I can do it," he said, "but I'll take a look at it for you. How long are you guys going to be?"

"As long as it takes," replied the smart Ed.

"Nazz is on board," Ed stated.

Almost immediately, Kevin asks where their ship is and they pointed up towards the roof, and Kevin rushes through the door to get up to the rooftop. As soon as he left, the Eds turn around to finally take notice of what the vehicle is heading right towards them. The vehicle itself is a limousine, with its hood in shape of a blue man's head with a white mustache and a mask covering his eyes. On the roof of the limousine is the man himself, dressed in a formal attire of a black tuxedo, white gloves and undershirt, a flower on his left breast pocket and a top hat on his head. The man is carrying a long cane that resembles a magic wand, meaning that this man is a magician of some sort.

The group following the limousine is comprises of five individuals, with four appearing human and one that is a cheetah. The leader of the group is a fit male teen, wearing a red and green outfit with a flowing black and yellow cape behind him, and he is wearing a mask similar to the magician. Following right behind him is a very large male, with his skin black, but there is hardly any of it due to that his body is made up of mostly machines. There are two girls with the two males, with one having long red hair, orange skin, wearing a skimpy purple outfit and has green eyes in general, and the other girl is wearing a blue cloak over her grey body, and the Eds can see dark blue hair and a red diamond on her head. And finally, what is unusual about the cheetah is that, despite looking like a normal cheetah, every square inch is in different shades of green.

It appears that the teen heroes are chasing the magician due to what he is gripping in his other hand, which is a large sack full of whatever is inside. With the limousine heading right for the Eds, Ed takes a step forward to use his body to stop the car, since he is very heavy and will crush the car when it hits him. Eddy takes his shield and hands to Ed for protection and the boys wait for the car to slam right into Ed, but the magician places down the bag onto the roof and tips his hat down.

"I'm not going to allow you to stop me in my latest scheme," the magician sneered. He raises his magic cane and gives it a spin right at his feet. "Mumbo Jumbo!"

After shouting those two words, the limousine's front wheels lift up from the ground and the whole car jumps off of the ground as it sails right over the Eds and lands on the other side them with a rough _thud!_ The wheels screech and the limousine sends out a cloud of smoke as it zips away and leaving the Eds to cough the smoke they just breathed. Just as the smoke clears, the Eds look up to notice the limousine speeding away and the group of heroes gathering right next to them.

"He's getting away!" stated the leader of the group. The rest of the group went ahead to chase after the magician as the leader stays behind to briefly talk to the Eds. "You three, why are you standing there? Go after him!"

The boys look at each other to come up with a decision but before they can give it to the hero, he is already on his way to catch up with his team. The Ed boys debate on what they are going to do and Ed's hat pitches that he uses a Gravity spell and an Aero spell to stop the limousine and force the magician off of the car. With that plan settle, the boys got to running to catch up with the heroes and hope that their plan will succeed. Normadomus opens his mouth wide and starts to glow purple deep within, meaning he is casting a Gravity spell, and everyone can hear the sound of the asphalt cracking and the crunching of metal as the limousine sinks down into the road. Once the wheels are still, the wizard hat switches from Gravity to Aero, using a light green light to cast the spell.

The wind spell hits the magician, knocking him off of his perch on top of the limousine and he hits the hard asphalt below, tumbling backwards before hitting the boot of the large robot man. The magician gathers himself very quickly and is surrounded by the heroes before he chants a few magic words and disappearing right before them. The Eds stop their running and notice the magician running in the opposite direction and Double D takes out his Keyblade to use a Thunder spell to shock the blue man. The electric attack hits, stopping the magician dead in his tracks and this gives the chance for the group to rush in and take down the man once and for all.

However, the man refuses to go down as he is back up on his feet and he brushes off the dirt he collected on his suit and top hat. With one look at the approaching group before him, the magician takes his top hat and chants two words before spiraling right into his hat and the top hat disappearing into a cloud of smoke. Everyone came to a stop and look in confusion about what just happen and a few of the heroes went to the site to see how did the magician managed to pull off a successful escape act.

The robotic man takes scans of the area and the cloaked girl checks the surroundings to see if they can find the man as the others look at the Eds strangely. "So what brings you three to Jump City?" asked the leader of the group.

"You five know about the Heartless, right?" replied Double D.

"You mean those black creatures that look something like this?" a green boy wearing a purple spandex suit asked, shape-shifting into a Soldier Heartless and the Eds returning a nod before the boy returns back to normal. "Yeah, we fight those things every day."

"We're known as the Titans around these parts," said the leader. "I'm Robin and this is Beast Boy, Starfire and over there is Cyborg and Raven."

The Eds introduce themselves to the Titans and they explain more about their mission to them, telling them that they are looking for the keyhole to this world and seal up to prevent the Heartless from getting at the heart of the world. After finishing their scans, the two teens that did the scanning return to the group to report their findings. "Well I checked all over and Mumbo pulled a true escape act on us," the robotic man known as Cyborg answered.

"I've searched over and I couldn't find a trace of him anywhere in the city," the cloak girl Raven added. "It appeared Mumbo left the city and went into hiding."

"So, are all of you superheroes?" asked Ed, getting excited to see more heroes before him.

"Yes we are," the orange-skinned Starfire replied.

"Well this isn't the first time we came to world that is a city and found some superheroes protecting a large city," stated Eddy. "This is the third city, right?"

"According to my memories, yes," replied Double D.

The Titans decide to allow the Eds to join them temporary and take them around to give them the chance to fight some Heartless and any villains doing their crimes. In the distance alleyways, a hat materializes out of thin air and the man known as Mumbo Jumbo pops out from his top hat and checks his surroundings to make sure that no one is following him. Once he is clear, he rolls up one of his sleeves and reaches into his hat to pull out the large bag of Munny he stole from the bag.

"Mumbo Jumbo, you have outdone yourself once again," the man said, holding the bag of Munny before him.

With a toss over his shoulder, the magician heads off down the alley to get to his hideout, all before smacking into a hard substance and falling down. A shake of the head and placing his top hat back on his head, Mumbo looks up to see who or what he ran into and notices the shape of another man in the alleyway. Much to his luck, it is not a hero to his knowledge, but he is not certain on who this person really is.

"Who… Who are you?" Mumbo asked, shoving his magic wand before the man.

The mysterious man steps out into the light, revealing a man dressed in a Union Jack shirt and light khaki pants, brown loafers, a pair of glasses and bright red hair. In the man's hands is a cane, but unlike Mumbo it has a red gem for the grip and appears to be more of a fighting type of cane than the magician's wand. With a simple push away of the wand, the man offers his hand but Mumbo got himself back onto his feet.

"Now me dear chum, why are you rejecting my offer?" the man asked in a British accent.

"Because I can't trust anyone in this city, especially those who dress funny," replied Mumbo.

"This is just my everyday attire, thank you very much. Now allow me to introduce myself. The name's Mad Mod and I'm here to offer you a deal you can't refuse."

"Wait… Mad Mod? The Mad Mod who's an old guy that is sometime picked on when in prison?" The magician takes a good look at the man claiming to be Mad Mod, eyeing him up and down before judging his decision. "No, you don't look like him."

This triggers something within the British man and he pounces right onto Mumbo with rage. "I don't know what you are getting at, but I am the real Mad Mod. Now all I need to do is get a deal with you and then we'll deal with those pesky Titans!"

"I'm not sure where you are going, but I'm listening," Mumbo replied, backing away from the crazed man.

"All right, it's this: since you have magic to help you get away with most of your crimes and I'm able to bend reality to make it my plaything, I've found a way to allow the two of us to combine our abilities to use them against the Titans and do whatever we please!"

"What's the catch?"

"Not much, just only your partnership in this plan," Mad Mod answered, offering his hand once again.

Mumbo looks down at the hand and up into the face of the British man, making sure that he is not going to pull some kind of trick on him, and then he reaches out with his own hand to shake Mad Mod's. Upon making contact, Mad Mod clasp his other hand and begins to drain the powers right out of Mumbo, taking every drop of magic right out of him and adding it to his own. The magician screams in pain as Mad Mod's smile grows wide on his face, as the man slowly adds features to his body to make him look like a fusion of him and Mumbo Jumbo.

Once the transformation is complete, the new man frees the drained Mumbo and allows his true form to drop to the ground and leave him lying on the ground. With a push up of his new top hat using Mad Mod's cane, the man walks out into the open air and takes a deep breath before twirling his cane around. "It's a great day to break the fabric of reality!" the man said in a fusion of Mumbo's and Mad Mod's voice. The British magician takes the butt of his cane and slams it down hard on the ground, causing a ripple to rocket across the city and be felt by the many citizens of the city.

The ripple reaches the group and shakes them to the bone as it passes by, going overhead and exiting without causing severe damage to the city. Everyone looks around to find out where the source of the ripple came from, but the question that remains is only brought up by one of them. "What was that?" asked Eddy.

"A strange anomaly as far as we know," answered Cyborg. "Whatever caused it didn't do much to the surroundings, but that doesn't say much to the people that felt that."

"Uh Cyborg, care to explain that?" questioned Beast Boy, pointing to an alleyway.

Coming out of the alley is a Shadow but unlike the others they have seen before, this Shadow is entirely white and has blue eyes instead of the typical yellow eyes. The Heartless looks over to the direction where the group it and it wanders up to give them a good look-at with its blue and sad eyes. There is the sound of panting coming from it and even a playful bark before its antennae perk up and hears the sound of other Heartless nearby. The white Shadow strolls away from the heroes, leaving them confused and wondering why a Heartless like that Shadow would be behaving as it is.

"Were our eyes deceiving us, or was that really a…"

"A white Heartless acting like a dog?" replied Raven. "Yes Starfire, it was what you saw."

"Aren't usually Heartless supposed to be black?" Beast Boy asked, scratching his head before getting some eyes on him. "Oh right, I can turn into Heartless… heh-heh."

"Well it doesn't make any senses at all," explained Robin. "That ripple must have caused that Heartless to change colors and behave like that. Cyborg, try to get a reading on that Heartless to see if that ripple did any…"

The teen's sentence trails off as everyone looks at the large robotic man. They can see that he appears to be paying attention but he is not responding at all. The green boy reaches up and gives him a few knocks on the head before placing a pointy ear onto a robotic part and listen for the gears cranking inside of him. "Well, it appears that Cyborg here is running on dial-up," he commented. "I can tell by hearing that annoying sound when you hook it up."

"I hated that sound," Eddy complained with a firm nod from Double D.

"So that means Cyborg must be running on the slowest speed…"

"It may take hours for him to move one step!" Beast Boy stated, cutting his leader off. "Hey, what's wrong with your tall friend over there?"

The Eds look over to see what is happening to Ed and they notice that he and Raven are sitting together at a table, drinking what appears to be tea and eating sweets. What surprises them all is that both are dressed with class, with Ed being in a formal gentleman suit, Normadomus as a top hat and a monocle, and Raven is, much to the Titan's surprise, dressed in a Victorian outfit in the similar color to her cloak and she is smiling.

"… RAVEN?" stated the three moving Titans.

"Good tidings gentlemen and lady," said Normadomus. "Would you care to join us for some tea and crumpets?"

All of them raise a finger and try to say something in response, but everything fails to come out of their heads. There is no way to explain this sort of ordeal that Ed and Raven are going through and if they did, Cyborg is useless at the moment. That is until he starts to move again and whacks the back of everyone's heads, and the sound of large gears cranking is heard. The heroes and the Eds back away from the moving robot to see if he is going to do anything else before he finally snaps back to normal and looks at his friends with a worry look on his face.

"Whoa… what happened to me back there?" he asked.

"Well you like all normal and then you shut down with your power still on," explained Beast Boy, "and you were running on dial-up before you went berserk and smack all of us in the head!"

"Really? According to my sensors, I was functioning properly," the robot replied, "so I wasn't acting out of place. Hey, why is Raven…?"

"We have no idea what is happening," said Starfire. "We found Raven and that boy like that and there was no explanation for it."

Much like the sudden change of Ed and Raven, a sharp pain hits the smart Ed right in the stomach and he clenches as he falls to the ground. Ed notices this and he is reverted back to normal as he rushes over to pick his friend up from the ground and hold him by his shoulder. The medium Ed's face is written in pain and everyone is worrying about the safety of Double D's being.

"Double D! Are you all right?" the tall Ed stated, sounding like his usual self.

"This reality… it's tearing me apart!" Double D shouted in an unintelligible accent.

"My God, Double D made the worst reference ever!" screamed Eddy.

"Actually, the worst reference would be a _My Immoral_ reference," said Ed, sounding educated.

The other two Eds stare at their tall friend with a dumbfounded look on their faces, noting that he sounds far too intelligent than they remember. When he did recognize that sudden wording from his mouth, he goes into a shocked horror and starts running around in circles. "It's _Warrior_ all over again!" he stated at the top of his lungs, now a small brown teddy bear with a brown fedora on his head and a tongue sticking out.

Right next to bear Ed sits a small polar bear with a pair of insane goggles over its eyes and the boys think that this is Normadomus. "I've done things that I'm not proud of," said the bear with a slight French accent, "but they were very adorable."

"I bet they were," said Eddy in a cutesy voice. "Wait… I don't do cute! What is happening to us?"

"It's the _Warrior_ comics!" stated Ed. "They rip the very fabric of space and time and they are pulling together different dimensions to form a reality that is only controlled by the head puppeteer that is the Overlord himself!"

Once again the two Eds stare at the tall wondering about what he just said. All in all, it is not some mystic overlord controlling the different realities into one, nor is it some silly comic that is terrible to begin with, but rather a manic sitting up where the original writer is sitting and typing whatever comes to mind.

"Uh, did you get what that last paragraph just said?" asked Double D.

"Yeah, we did," replied Eddy. "Something doesn't make sense."

"I'll tell you what the meaning behind this is," came from the voice of Robin, who is ironically enough a robin, "Mad Mod. He's responsible for controlling reality and warping it into his own insane world, either to make us all behave or turn the city into another colony of Britain."

"But that doesn't make sense," said Double D. "How could one man have control over reality to make it his own when that sort of power is limited to fiction?"

"You obviously never met Mad Mod before," said Raven, who is in the form of, ironically, a raven.

"But this is not like the Mad Mod's schemes before," said Starfire, who appears to be a floating ball of light to represent her name.

"True, but there's no telling what that man is up to," added Cyborg, now a giant supercomputer.

"Am I seeing things or is all of us things that make us up and I'm not all green?" Beast Boy said, looking down at himself to notice that he appears more human now. "What gives? I thought I have a better form than this!"

"None of this is making sense," stated Robin. "We know Mad Mod is capable of making reality his own but this sort of transformations is done with Mumbo Jumbo."

This is what you are dealing with, me duckys. If you can read this, you should know that I have join forces with Mumbo Jumbo to create a perfect duo that is suited to take you brats down a notch. Now we're not certain about the three new boys that are with you but we'll take care of them once we're done with you.

"Show yourself!" shouted Eddy.

Being the gentleman that I am…

"You're no gentleman!" shouted the Titans.

. . . I hack into one of the large monitors hanging on the sides of the building to reveal my face down at the Titans and the three boys. By the looks on their faces, they are surprise to see me wearing Mumbo's mask over my eyes and his top hat on my head, even seeing his black tux over my shirt. The Titans look in anger as I loathly laugh down at the pest below, showcasing my duo voice to the children.

"You honestly think that you stand a chance against us?" I asked. "Please! We're in an undisclosed location far away from the city. There's no way that any of you are going to find…"

Just at that moment, I got kicked across the face and knock out of the chair, which cuts my feed from the others and left me fending off against an unknown force. Back down on the street, the Titans and the Eds are wondering what is going on over where Mad Mod, or as they are calling him now Mad Mumbo, until there is a large explosion right behind them. Coming out from where the explosion emitted from, a couple of Heartless roll out into the street to unveil forms that the group has yet to see. In fact, the Heartless are combinations of different Heartless fused together to make stranger and stronger versions.

Double D takes a step forward and waits for a fusion of a Large Body and a Spiked Crawler to head right towards him and strike it with his Keyblade. However, the Ed thrust his Keyblade forward, creating a large pixilated version of it and smashes the Heartless into tiny blocks. Everyone looks down at themselves that each one of them is made out of one-by-one pixels and they have shrunk down in size.

"Hey, allow me to try that," said Eddy, drawing his shield out.

A fusion of a Darkball and an IFH appears suddenly and approaches the group with its Darkball speed, Eddy whips his shield forward and creates a wide cutting field to where his shield is. Slicing right through and smashing the Heartless into tiny pixels, the Titans got busy to deal with the rest of the Heartless, clearing out the fused Heartless in no time at all. Once done, the heroes are reverted back to normal and they continue on their fight, but a certain individual starts to eye a boy and she calls out to him softly.

"Robin…"

The said person stops in his tracks and turns to look at Starfire, who is looking at him in a lustful way. He is getting some shivers down his spine as she approaches him slowly, and he takes a few nervous steps back as the alien girl gets closer to him.

"Why are you backing away Robin? I thought that you love me."

"Uh… Starfire? Why are you behaving like that?"

"Why am I behaving like this? I love you more than my home world, and all I ask of you is one small kiss." Right now she is right up against him and Robin is shaking from head to toe in nervousness.

"Starfire, I don't think that this is a very good…"

"Oh just shut up and kiss me, you fool."

She grabs him by his suit and pulls him up to lock their lips together and kiss in passion before moving into romantic. Robin struggles to pull away but Starfire has him in her grasps, making escape impossible for him as he cannot reach any of his tools. The Eds watch in disgust as the two lovers make out before them, even getting the small Ed to step up and tell them to stop.

"Hello, K+ rating here!" stated Eddy. "Try to keep things as clean here, OK?"

Oh, you want things to get dirty, eh? Well, the street below them starts to turn into goopy mud and several Heartless rises up from the mud to continue on with the fight. With mud dripping off of them, the three boys that came from another world got their weapons ready to fight the Heartless and look towards the Titans for help, but notice only the tall tin man there by their side.

"Uh, what's going on with the others?" asked Double D.

Cyborg look over at Robin and Starfire, seeing his leader struggling to get out of the alien's grip, and then over to Beast Boy and Raven who are doing the same thing, meaning that only the girls are being affected by this strange surge of lust. The robotic teen prepares to charge up one of his arm cannons, but he suddenly gets distracted by some shiny metal to the side of him.

"Ooh, some trash to smash up," he said excitedly, breaking away from the others to go scoop up the trash.

The Eds try to stop him from going over to the trash, but they are busy fighting the muddy Heartless. Double D slices one Shadow right down the middle and he is getting mud onto his arms as the other Eds are staying clean thanks to being a medium and long range fighters. The smart Ed switches tactics by using his magic, going from Fire to Blizzard to Thunder in seconds, the boys clear the Heartless with a few splashes of mud on them and to notice their feet are a few inches deep in the hard asphalt.

"How did this happen?" asked Eddy. "Was this stuff quick dry?"

"I don't care!" proclaimed Double D. "All I need to do is get out of here and get myself clean off immediately! I'm filthy, filthy, filthy!"

"Hey, nothing says getting clean off by an Aero wouldn't do the trick," suggested Normadomus, tipping the brim up to make him look like he is shrugging.

"Still, how are we going to get out of this? There isn't a jackhammer, or even a hammer for that matter, to dig us out of here!" the smart Ed pointed out.

There is a visible light bulb appearing right over Ed's head and he lets out his typical "Boing!" whenever he has an idea. Taking his staff, he gives it a twirl and smacks the butt hard onto the ground, in which the sphere on top glows brown and the ground beneath starts to shake. The boys can feel the earth under their feet rising up and in a few seconds they are free from their prison, and they are rocketing up on thick layers of earth as they drop down back onto the street and look at the tall Ed in awe.

"Ed… you did that?" asked a breathless Double D.

"The boy has learned his final spell, Terra!" Ed's hat proclaimed. "He has everything that he needs to take down the Heartless!"

At that moment, the two struggling boys finally broke away from their "lovers," with Beast Boy getting a second to transform into a slippery python and slither away from Raven and Robin grabbing a light grenade to temporary blind Starfire and slip right out of her grip. Once the alien regains her eyesight and both girls lost their lust for each boy, the group huddles together and asks where Cyborg went, only for the Eds to explain that he went to gather some trash.

"Hello ladies," said a masculine voice.

Starfire and Raven looks over to where the voice is and they are surprise by who is talking to them. "Cyborg?" they stated at once.

Standing before them is a muscular black man with the same face as Cyborg, but he is free of any robotic parts and is only wrapped with a towel around his waist. Have fun imagine how he looks ladies. "Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me," Cyborg said in his new voice, speaking very fast with Starfire and Raven looking at Robin and Beast Boy rapidly. "Sadly he isn't me, but if they stop using ladies scented body wash and switch to…" He holds out his hand as if he is presenting something but nothing is there and he looks up to the sky to see if the author will give him something.

"Sorry but I'm not affording to use any products in this story," said I before getting punched.

"… whatever I can get my hands on, he could smell like he was me," continues Cyborg. "Look down, back up, where are you? You're on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What's in your hand? Back at me, I have it. It's an oyster with two tickets to that thing you like. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible with the power of reality warping and not smells like a lady, I'm on a horse."

Right in between the man's legs is a green horse that Beast Boy has taken form of and, strangely enough, Cyborg is riding him backwards. Then out of nowhere come a catchy whistle and the Eds run their ears to get the annoying sound out of their heads. On the horse's face he looks disgusted by this and he lets out an annoyed grunt. "I don't understand how I got into this…" he said in a deadpan tone.

Everything snaps back to normal and Beast Boy stretches out his back once he is back to his normal form, leaving everyone to take a moment to breathe. That is if there isn't a black hole right under Raven and a giant arm to reach up and drag her down into the pit. She struggles around in the grip and uses her magic to prevent her from going down, but the power of reality is stronger than her and it breaks her magic as she is drag into the darkness and the hole close on the rest of the Titans. Everyone rushes over to help Raven but they are too late to save her; they let her fall into the darkness and join us in wherever we are.

"Hey, thanks for the info!" stated Ed.

… I should really keep my mouth shut.

OOO

A panel opens up and a head enters to look around at the wiring that makes up the _Midnight Hummer_. With one hand gripping onto a wrench and one free to push and pull himself in, Kevin climbs into the section he is working on and starts cranking away to fix the Gummi ship before the Eds come back. They promise that Nazz is on board and she is, and she is helping out by handing Kevin whatever tool he asks for.

"So Nazz, where were you?" the jock asked. "I mean, where did the Eds find you?"

"Well if you must know, I was onboard of a creepy alien ship and they had me stuffed in a cold prison cell," the blonde replied. "I was stuck in that cell for some time when a creepy boy arrived, telling me that he was going to save me…"

"What kind of boy?"

"Like I said, he was creepy looking. Looks more like the kind to be a one night stand."

Kevin continues to crank away underneath as Nazz continues on with her story. "Anyway, he was captured by the alien guarding me and was put into another cell, and he had connections to the Eds…"

"Did they save you?"

"No, some red-haired chick saved me. She kicked and punched her way through and saved all of us, but I was tired and fell asleep when the Eds boarded the ship. After that, I remember riding with them to two other worlds before coming up here."

"That's something all right," said Kevin, sliding out from the hole. "So have you seen any of the others from the cul-de-sac?"

"No, not yet. Double D said that we're heading back once we pick up someone else and now here you are."

"Well we're not heading anywhere until this bucket of bolts gets off of the ground," the jock said, taking a rag to wipe his hands and toss it to the side. He walks up to the controls and sits down at the main controls, looking out through the windshield to notice the fighting below and the strange happenings going on. "I wonder what exactly the Eds deserve to do all of this?" he wonders. "They got this ship to travel around the universe and they get to visit other worlds, while we sit here and do nothing!"

"Well, there is something that we can do," Nazz toyed, making Kevin blush slightly. She walks up and sits down in Eddy's seat, only to spin it to face him. "I wanted to this for a while now…"

"Um Nazz, aren't we a bit too young to be doing that?" Kevin replied nervously.

"What are you talking about? I was talking about kissing! I was hoping that you and I can get a kiss together, that's all."

The mechanic eases up a bit when he heard of what Nazz is really going for, but his nervousness for the girl is there. It has been a while since the two were alone and the last time was not the greatest moment for them. In Kevin's mind, this is a chance to make things up for before and hopefully get the blonde under his wings. If he plays it right he will have Nazz for himself and no one else could touch her, except for the people he is friends with. All that he needs to do is lay one kiss on her lips and the deal is set, but there are things that can go wrong.

The jock takes a hand and wipes his face, trying to cool it down from his blushing. "Umm… sure, that sounds like a plan," he answered.

Nazz got herself ready by grabbing a stick of lip balm and Kevin takes his hat off and rustles his hair to get it to look decent. With the two ready, they slide closer together and briefly look at each other before turning away in embarrassment. They had all opportunities to do this and this is their chance to do it once and for all, and they finally break the moment by locking their lips together. With both of their eyes closed, they kept their lips together for a full minute before Kevin backs away and opens his eyes.

When he opens his eyes, he is staring at a completely different girl than the girl he was kissing. Instead of Nazz, sitting in front of him is a girl the same age as Double D and has the same color hair as Nazz, almost appearing as if she is Double D's twin. She is wearing a pink one-piece dress with a pair of long gloves, ballet pumps, and white socks. Unlike Double D, however, this girl has the most beautiful blue eyes that the boy has ever seen, and she looks very familiar to the jock.

"Kevin?" she asked in a voice different to Nazz's. "Kevin, are you all right?"

The boy shakes his head and opens his eyes to see that Nazz is sitting right in front of him. He scratches his head in confusion before he realizes that Nazz was talking to him. "Oh… I'm feeling fine," he replied. "For the moment, I thought you were someone else."

"Who was I?" asked the blonde.

"Just a girl from my imagination, that's all. Though I could've sworn I saw her before..."

"Well, at least we finally got to kiss," said Nazz. "Though, I thought that I was kissing some sort of strange man, but I kept thinking that I was kissing you and now we finally did it!"

"Yeah…"

OOO

"Yep."

"Yep."

"Mmm-hmm…"

With the crack of the tabs to canned iced tea, soda and carrot juice, the beings of me, Mad Mumbo, and the bunny form of Raven relax in a safe contained room far away from the city. I sit back with my feet up on the keyboard, watching the screen to monitor the strange happenings below. With the little rodent as a trophy, I'm keeping her in a cage right by me to prevent her from escaping.

"You should really stop talking out loud," the bunny replied. "It's getting really annoying."

"And who told you to read everything I am putting into this story?" I asked, grabbing the cage. "In case you don't remember, I'm the one controlling this story so I'm making sure that you don't read everything that I am typing!"

"What about your speech? And why am I a rabbit? Can you tell me that?"

"What is it with the questions? One: yes. Two: there are people out there who like you being a rabbit, so your form will make them squeal in delight. And three: I've already answered those questions."

"Say, isn't there another person in this room?"

"Stop it with the… hey, you're right," said I. "I could've sworn I saw that other guy in this…"

There is the sound of creeping coming up from above and a metal pipe drops down onto the keyboard to hit both that and the ground. Startled, I look up to where the pipe came from, searching around the darkness to see where the original writer went off to. My eyes adjust to the darkness and I notice the barrel of a rifle aiming straight at my head, so I reach for my cane and cast a magic spell to prevent the writer from shooting, but he takes the shot anyway. Missing by a foot, I stumble slightly but quickly recover to cast another spell, but he evades my attack by slipping behind some pipes.

I let out a growl and the writer lets out another shot at me, this time peeking through his hiding spot. We start another trade with each other as Raven begins to meditate and use her magic to break free from her cage. Just saying that, I use one spell to stop the writer dead in his tracks and whip around to knock the cage back and flip Raven over to prevent her from escaping.

"Try all you want, Mad Mumbo," growls Raven, "my team is going to get up here and will take you down!"

"Well first they need to figure out where we are before they can come to save you," I replied. "And second, you're not going to do a thing while I'm in charge. Just because you can read whatever I put out, doesn't mean that I can't!"

The cloaked rabbit kicks her cage back up right and starts pouting as I resume time on my little fight with the original writer. With nothing to do, Raven watches as I and the writer continue to fight it out with the writer having a stronger advantage and we do since his imagination is stronger than my reality warping and Mumbo's magic. The writer emerges from his hiding place and he kicks me in the face, knocking me down and rushing over to the keyboard to keep on writing the story.

"Raven…" came a ghostly voice.

"What?" the bunny replied.

Out of nowhere pops a small ghost-like Beast Boy, all grey and has the typical ghost tail to replace his legs. "I'm haunting you," the ghost answered, leading to Raven screaming at the top of her lungs.

The group stops whatever they are doing and listens to where the screaming came from. They check all around ground level but found no possible source of the scream before they tilt their heads upward to the sky, where they notice a small square shape hole up where the clouds are. Beast Boy is back on the ground and he shakes his head and gives it a good smack to recover his senses as he looks at the group, who are waiting for answers.

"So, did you see where Raven is?" asked Robin.

"I'm not sure where exactly she is at, but it's somewhere up there," the green boy replied, pointing up to the sky to where the square hole is.

"And that's where we should do our climbing," said Cyborg. "I'm detecting a large amount of electricity up there, along with three beings with one being Raven and Mad Mumbo."

"And how exactly are we going to get up there?" asked Eddy. "In case you don't know, we can't fly like the rest of you."

"Only Beast Boy and Starfire are able to fly," pointed out Robin.

"Maybe you can use your hair like the last time and Double D can use his hat as a balloon?" pitched Ed.

"I'm not going to use my hair like a helicopter," the greedy Ed protested. "Besides, I like having a full set of hair, thank you very much."

"And I'm not going to have your mouth blowing air to blow up my hat," Double D protested as well. "It's not going to be like before to where I can blow my hat up by myself and achieve lift that way."

"Say Cyborg, why can't you fly?" asked Beast Boy. "All you really need to do is put some rockets into you and you're good to go."

"You know, I never thought of that," the robot replied. "But there are some factors that'll prevent me from using rockets, such as balance issues and placement of them."

"Maybe Ed could use his new spell," suggested Double D. "He could make some platforms out of the earth and use them to climb up to the sky."

"But even raising the earth has its limits," said Normadomus. "We can go as high as the roof of the buildings, but even the most talented of wizards can't perform a feat like that."

A light bulb flashes right above Beast Boy's spiky green hair and a smile emerges on his face. "I got an idea!" he stated. "If Mad Mumbo is controlling the dimensions, then why can't we?"

"Where are you going at?" asked Robin.

"I mean we can turn ourselves into anything we want with all of this going on," the green boy said, "and I have the form in mind that'll save the day."

"So… what you are saying is that Robin, Cyborg and the Ed boys can imagine some sort of way to fly?" questioned Starfire.

"Beast Boy does bring up a good idea," said Cyborg. "If Mad Mumbo can control the realities, we should be able to take control and have it benefit us."

"I don't know about you guys, but that sounds like a bad idea," replied Eddy, now made up of several sheets of paper, along with the other Eds.

"Eddy, we can control realities!" stated Ed.

"Nah-uh, screw you guys, I'm going home!"

"Where is home, Eddy?" asked Double D. "You do recall that our home was destroyed, remember?"

"No, screw you guys, home."

"Eddy, snap out of it!" stated the smart Ed, taking his Keyblade and smacking his friend in the head. "What has gotten into you?"

"First… OUCH! And second, I don't know," the greedy Ed replied. "I was thinking that it was a good idea, but suddenly I felt someone has taken me over."

"It must be Mad Mumbo," stated Robin. "He must be taking us over to prevent us from getting to the top!"

"And I'll keep on doing it until I have complete control of this story," I replied on one of the screens. "All I need is a few more pages and then I am in control!"

"We're not allowing you to control us!" barked Eddy.

"Try to stop me, shrimp!"

"THAT'S IT!" the greedy Ed yelled, head now bright red in anger. "Ed, toss me up there!"

Ed nods his head in response and grabs a hold of Eddy's legs as he charges him up for the launch. Spinning the small Ed around and around, the tall Ed takes a few steps back and get himself align for the shot to the top. After he is done, Ed spins around once and lets Eddy go to launch the speeding boy up to the square hole. Taking his shield, the small Ed places his weapon before him as he continues to spiral up to the top and readies himself for a fight ahead.

… That is, if there wasn't a visible wall in his way. The boy hits it at full force, flattening to a pancake as he peels back and falls back to the ground. His friends rush over to help catch him and I laugh for the failed attempt at getting at me. "Oh please, you really think that you're going to get up the easy way?" I asked.

The Titans look at me with rage as I call forth some Heartless to distract them, giving me time to deal with the author. On the ground, the remaining Titans breeze through the Heartless in no time and Beast Boy starts to beg about his idea of transforming into what is in his head. Once getting confirmed by his leader, the green boy rushes to an open spot and snaps his fingers to transform into a man. Still keeping his green skin, Beast Boy has changed his spandex for a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, flip flops, a large pair of nerdy glasses, big puffy black hair and is holding an accordion in his hands.

Everyone stares at the new Beast Boy, with a few of them trying to not laugh as Ed walks up and stares at him closely. "Uh BB, is this a bit much?" asked Cyborg.

Beast Boy looks down at himself and he tosses aside the accordion, in which Ed catches for himself and an organ appears out of nowhere. The green man steps up to the organ and got himself seated in front of it, cracking his fingers as he gets ready to play some music. With all fingers on the keys, Beast Boy got busy playing the song that he has in mind before quickly finishing up the opening.

With two notes from an electric guitar, the ground starts to rise up and the group can hear several cars screeching down the road. Inside of the leading car is a man at the wheel with a rabid Heartless in some underwear. Everyone got the idea that they are going to jump up onto the roof of each car, and they did but only for the cars to spin out of control. At that moment, several famous people pop out of thin air and start raining down on the cars, in which turns out to be Heartless in disguise and the group slays through each one of these celebrities before noticing a semi truck heading right towards them.

Everyone bails out by jumping over the semi-truck and landing down on the slanted surface right before they could get caught in an explosion. Up ahead of them is Mad Mumbo himself and the group gets ready for the fight, but he only takes off a pair of wax lips and jumps back to send in some Heartless. The chorus hits in as the setting around them changes from black and white to being standing upside down and right back up to everything being up close and far away. The Titans and the Eds take on the Heartless one by one in the forms they are taking on, using each form to their advantage to take down the fused Heartless.

Once the chorus is up, Mad Mumbo is gone and the group continues to climb up until they notice that they are running in a kitchen setting. When they reach the end of the room, they are wandering through a wormhole before ending up in an alternative version of the city where there are giant alien-like Heartless roaming the city. All of the Heartless turn to face the heroes and prepare to strike, but the heroes defeat the Heartless and find Mad Mumbo watching from afar and getting treats from smaller versions of the Heartless aliens.

After that, the heroes are reverted back to their normal setting, only noticing that they are back at the bottom with some papers in their hands. They toss the papers aside and run up the slanted road, only to be stop by a giant head of Mad Mumbo and he opens up his mouth to shout the beginning at the chorus. Once again the chorus takes the heroes through a strange trip, but they use this to get them further up the road and beat several Heartless along the way.

Now entering the bridge, the Eds gather together to form a battering ram with Ed as their basher and Normadomus omitting out to being hit. The two carrying Eds take off running, holding onto their heavy friend as they plow through several Heartless and copies of Mad Mumbo as they near the top of the road. The Titans try to keep up with the Eds as they slowly knock through the numbers and clear a path for them to get to the top. Robin spots who he thinks is the real Mad Mumbo and charges right for him, only for this Mad Mumbo to take his cane and blast a magic spell right at the teen, only for Starfire to use her powers to deflect the spell.

With two more beats from an electric guitar, the heroes to continue their climb up but they are stopped by a large gate in front of them. At a podium stands a large man in an angelic robe and he is looking down at the group as if they had done some wrong in their life until he nods to them and allows them to pass. When they step through, they are greeted with a blast of cold air and the man storms right by them shouting the beginning of the chorus. Everyone lets out a sigh as they repeat through the chorus one more time, but they are about three-fourths of the way so they do not have that much to worry about. They end the song with a powerful blow, finishing off several Heartless and leaving the road clear between them and Mad Mumbo.

Up on what appears to be a broken, floating skull stands a figure of a man, wearing torn black clothes and has bright red hair that looks like fire. The Titans presume that this man is Mad Mod, but the Eds can feel that this man is not the one they are looking for. In fact, this man is staring right them with an unblinking stare, cold and sharp as knives that can cut the boys clean through. With a flowing scarf blowing in the breeze, the man is standing perfectly still as the group continues the climb up to the edge of reality to fix all of this. A smile appears on the mysterious man's face and he starts to change form into something different and for a split second Double D recognizes a form that he saw briefly in one of his Awakenings.

In the change, there was a figure of a tall man with a dark grey longcoat, zippers all over, gloves covering his hands, brown pants with belts draping down and an unusual hair color. However this is just for a second and the form transforms into something entirely different. The whole area, including the air, begins to vibrate violently and the heroes hold their ground as the transforming man takes form into his true identity. The Eds and the Titans looks in awe at the being before them is really a Heartless, a giant Heartless to be exact.

The Heartless is a giant figurine, appearing to be made in a futuristic armor with the appearance of ancient patterns. The look makes it appear to be from an ancient Mexican civilization but the armor proves it wrong. The head has a dark blue skull helmet covering the typical black skin and yellow eyes of the Heartless. The giant has a ghost tail draping below and is wielding a large pendulum scythe in one hand, with its design very similar to the Heartless that is carrying it. And like most of the Heartless the Eds had seen, the emblem that marks them is across its chest except the color is blue instead of red.

"What… what is that thing?" asked Double D.

"That's… the Grim Reaper Heartless!" stated Normadomus. "I know that one exists in this universe, but this one looks different from the one I read in a book."

"The Grim… Reaper?" echoed the others.

"Be on your guards," explained Ed's hat. "I'm guessing that this Heartless is upset by the disturbances going on here and is willing to fix all of it."

"What the…? What is that thing doing here?" I asked, looking down from the hole in the ground. "I didn't write that thing to be in this."

"And the author isn't here at the moment," said Raven. "He left when the tremors were acting up."

"Still, I'm calling the shots around here, not that pesky two-time writer. I'm getting rid of that thing if is the last thing I…"

I look at the computer screen to notice a sticky note pasted onto it. I rip it off of the monitor and read its content, telling me that I can't change the events due to that the Grim Reaper, or whatever that Heartless is called, is a natural occurrence and not something that a writer can control. I begin to wonder what did he meant by that when the ground gives away and a hand reaches up to grab me. I try to use my magic but the Heartless is staring right at me with angry eyes, which is not a good sign for me.

The Titans and the Eds look over to see the Grim Reaper holding the _real_ Mad Mumbo in its grasp and its scythe ready to swing. They also notice a metal cage hanging on the edge of reality with what appears to be a rabbit and upon closer inspection it is Raven in that cage. Starfire flies over and grabs the cage in time before it falls down to the city below, breaking the lock that prevented the bunny from escaping, and the rabbit flies out of her prison to revert back to her normal self. The two girls look at the giant Heartless before them and at Mad Mumbo, deciding whether or not to let him live or get crush by the giant's mighty scythe, so they take the former.

Using their powers, the duo combines their abilities to knock Mad Mumbo out of the Grim Reaper's grasp and Raven made a disk for the mad man to ride to a safe location. Once the man is out of the Heartless' hands, the Grim Reaper takes its scythe and swings it down at the girls, but not before getting hit with some explosives and a sonic attack. The Heartless turns around to notice the heroes standing on the risen road, with all of them in a different form from their normal counterparts since reality is still broken.

Cyborg is taking on a more steampunk look to his robotic parts and he comments on how cool he looks. Robin is in an entirely different costume, one of which consists of a black and blue design and lacking of a cape, and he appears to be much older. Beast Boy looks pretty much like his usual self except that his outfit is a red and white design instead of purple and black, and he also looks older. Eddy appears to be wearing a medieval type of uniform, consisting of his usual casual look but has more belts on his body than before and is carrying more weapons. Ed is now sporting a blue jacket instead of his typical green jacket, and he is missing his red and white stripe shirt as it is replaced with a futuristic black and blue shirt, and a pair of brown baggy jeans is in place of his blue jeans. Normadomus is still the same, oddly, sitting on top of Ed's head as usual, and he compliments Ed's look just by being part of the design. And Double D is taking a different design to the uniform he is wearing, with him wearing a red one suit instead of a separate red shirt and purple pants, and he still has his gloves and black jacket on him, and replacing his shoes is a pair of large yellow shoes that would be normal in cartoons.

Eddy lets out a snicker at his friend's large footwear before he notices Starfire and Raven heading right for the boys. Starfire and Raven have also change forms as well, with Starfire appearing much older, having larger hair and her outfit being more revealing than before; and Raven has a white cloak instead of a blue one, and none of the others can see her eyes. All eight of them got themselves ready for the fight as the Grim Reaper looks down in rage and strikes them with its scythe, smashing down to knock up some asphalt and the heroes take off.

With no person controlling reality for them and a form that they like, the heroes take to the skies and begin to take on the giant Heartless to beat it back to whence it came. Robin and Double D trade blows with an extendable staff and the Keyblade and hit the side of the Heartless, missing a swipe of the hand as they back away from the monster. Starfire and Raven did another team-up move with their powers, hitting the Grim in the back of the head as Cyborg rides on a large eagle that Beast Boy has taken form of. Blasting away with his sonic blast, Cyborg nails each shot as Eddy and Ed team up to deliver their beatings to the Heartless.

The Grim Reaper swings its mighty scythe around and the heroes dodge the blows each and every time. One by one, the Titans and the Eds continue to deal the damage to the Heartless as it fights back in hopes of being the victor in this fight. The Grim Reaper delivers a backhand to Starfire and Raven, but Eddy jumps up and uses his shield to deflect the attack and then runs up the arm to slice it with the edge of his square shield. The Heartless shrieks in pain and Double D uses his new Thunder spell and Ed with his Shadara spell to increase the pain further. Robin takes a couple of his bombs and throws them to the scythe, knocking it out of the Heartless' hand and rendering it weak.

Now with only its bare hands to defend itself, the Grim Reaper continues to put up a fight as the Titans and the Eds make their final move on the Heartless. With the Titans going off in one direction and the Eds in the other, the Grim Reaper looks in both directions to see what the eight are coming up with, only to see the Titans getting into a formation and the Eds into one as well. With both Titans and Eds heading right for it, the Heartless holds out both arms to prevent the attack from hitting it, but sadly that did nothing to prevent the pain inflicting in its arms. The giant is tired from swinging its weight and the scythe around, so it falls victim to the Limit Break of the eight heroes and disappears to leave its giant heart behind.

Just as the Heartless is disappearing, Double D's Keyblade begins to act up and it is aiming straight at the T-shaped building. With a beam of light exiting from the tip and heading all the way to the building, the Ed thinks that he has sealed yet another keyhole just like the others, and the heroes fly down to the rooftop where Mad Mumbo is. The group finds the man panicking about what just happen and when he notices the Titans on the same rooftop, he makes a break for it, only to be stop by Robin.

"Show's over Mad Mumbo," said Robin. "It's time to close the curtains on this charade."

Now not in control, Mad Mumbo struggles to get away from the Titans but Robin grabs a hold of his cane and breaks it into two halves. Screaming at the top of his lungs, the man splits into Mad Mod and Mumbo Jumbo, with both beings fade away to leave only a top hat behind. Robin picks up and turns around to see that everyone is back to their normal selves, and even the city is back to its normal self. With a flick of his wrist, the leader lets the wind carry the hat off into the distance as the heroes stand there on top of the roof.

"What happened to them?" asked Ed, referring to Mad Mod and Mumbo.

"I'm guessing Mad Mod absorbed Mumbo's magic from the man and it's heading right back to him," answered Cyborg. "As for Mad Mod himself, the man is an old man using a younger version of himself to carry out his plans."

"But if that was the fake version of Mad Mod," asked Beast Boy, "then where's the real one?"

"I haven't seen him when I was with the fake," said Raven. "He must've been hiding elsewhere when things got weird."

"And talk about weird," said Eddy. "That one moment where we were these hedgehog things made me think 'why are these things so popular?' But I'm glad I'm back to my normal self."

"I'm glad we all are," Double D sighs. "After this experience, I'll be glad to head back to Traverse Town and take a long nap."

"I say we should all take a nap after this," said Cyborg, letting out a yawn.

"Yeah. Today has been a strange day," added Robin, rubbing the back of his head. He then reaches into one of his pockets and tosses the Eds a communicator-like device yellow and black in design and has a "T" in the middle. "If you guys are ever in need of help or are heading back here, just give us a call."

Double D gives a nod and the boys give the Titans a farewell wave as they left the rooftop to head to where their ship is waiting for them. After some minutes of walking and waiting, the Eds find their ship back to normal and ready to fly, as they got themselves strap in and ready to head back to Traverse Town for that much needed relaxation.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

Batter-Ram-Ed – a classic move that allows the Eds to use their tall friend as a battering ram and charge through several enemies at once._  
Heroes Unite_ – a large, combination attack that utilizes all of the Eds' and the Titans' abilities before having both parties attacking at the same time.

OOO

*fighting* Give it up Mad Mod! I got control of reality thanks to me being a creator, so don't make me delete you!

**Mad Mod**: There's no way that you have the power to delete me! I have control of reality just like you do so maybe I can delete you from existence!

Oh really? Well can you create a gun out of thin air simply by thinking of it?

**Mad Mod**: Uh… not really…

Yeah, I thought so. *creates steampunk gun* Now, are you going to leave peacefully, or do I have to resort using my ability to take you down a couple pegs?

**Mad Mod**: You think that you can create stuff out of the air doesn't mean that they…

*fires shot*

**Mad Mod**: . . . I'll be on my way now.

OOO

OK, now that's out of the way… I want to say that I am sorry about that. If you view me as a Gary Stu, I just want to say if I can do that in real-life… you're screw. No really, you're screw. Of course I am acting like a god back there because writers are somewhat gods when they are writing since they control how the story is going to turn out. And then you have to deal with the characters back-lashing so I'm doing my best at keeping them under control.

So please don't flame me for being a Gary Stu. If you do that, then you're acting very much like a hypocrite. Just allow me to say this: think before you write.

So yeah, with that out of the way, I want to talk about what just happened. Yeah to say the least that this is the biggest mind screw that I can put into a chapter. Man, even I couldn't imagine what kind of way to perform this in any of my works. I knew that I should put that warning at the beginning of the chapter. So what you saw was pretty much a massive reference to the many things on the Internet, with some things that I know and you might not heard of. If you can guess one of my more obscure references, then I'll let you in on a treat.

Plus, I thought of just having plain fun with me messing with the fact that no fourth wall exists in the first place. So having a character like Mad Mod to take over and have fun with the other characters to make things interesting. If you are wondering why everything is out of whack… it's mainly different realities, that's all.

So once again I like for you all to review, thank you very much. Coming up is the end of the act and another boss battle. This time… with another Heartless!

**P.S**: the song that I used was _Everything You Know is Wrong_ by "Weird Al" Yankovic.


	15. Act II, Ch 15: vs Prankster

Hello everyone and welcome to the end of this act _AND_ the halfway point of this story. *looks around* OK, I'm just making sure that I'm not being followed by any of the characters that I am using in this story. Seriously, if you know how hard it is to deal with this sort of thing, we wouldn't be here in the first place. We'll be all at Jack's place eating pie while being tied up.

. . . Why did that sound so wrong?

Well anyway, you should know that whenever I do an end-of-the-act chapter, it's going to lead up to a boss battle and this is going to prove to be tough for the Ed boys. How tough? Just imagine fighting an annoying invincible fighter who you really wish would just die. And ten bucks says you're thinking of the Duck Hunt dog. Anyway, cue the fight!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story.**

**

* * *

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Chapter Fifteen – A Prankster's Gift

OOO

Out in the vastness of space with nothing following them, Double D presses his feet against the controls as he leans back in his seat and lets out a good snore. He put their ship on auto-pilot when the Eds boarded the Gummi ship, getting the ship at a moderate speed and pointing towards Traverse Town, so he could take a break and rest up from the weirdness. Eddy is doing the same thing, taking his cap and covering his eyes and snoring loudly as the others rest in the lounge.

Kevin opens up the door to the fridge that is in the lounge and checks around its content for anything for them to have and he notices a couple cans of soda, so he takes two and tosses them to Ed and Nazz as he takes one out for himself and opens it. Taking a sip, he looks over to Ed and then up to his hat to begin asking it questions. "So Ed's hat, do you know where this bucket of bolts is heading?" he asked. "I tried asking Double D but he doesn't want to wake up."

"We're heading back to Traverse Town," Normadomus replied. "The reasons we're heading back there is one: we're going to drop you off, and two: we need to get this ship a new Gummi block that will help explore more of this universe."

"But I don't get it. Why do you need to drop us off some place we don't know of and leave us there while you guys go exploring the universe?" Kevin said. "We can help out!"

"I know you can, but when it comes to the Heartless, you're just another meal," Ed's hat replied. "Also you won't be alone when you get to Traverse Town."

"We found others," Ed added. "We found Rolf, Lee and May."

"You guys found Rolf?" asked Kevin, a bit shocked. "Well, at least I have someone else to talk to when we get there."

"And you found two of the Kankers?" asked Nazz, taking a sip of her drink. "How did you guys survive that?"

"They went along with us," the tall Ed answered. "They didn't fight or kiss us at all."

"That doesn't sound like the Kankers at all," said Kevin. "Maybe they hit their heads when they came to this strange place."

"Uh, I like to ask a question," said Nazz. "Can we please change this music? I'm getting tired of listening to this song ever since I got on here."

Ed nods to this request and he leads the two out into the cockpit to go fiddle with the stereo once again. With the two Eds sleeping at the wheel, he is free to mess around with the music to get it to fit Nazz's request. Opening up the door to the stereo and looking over the many buttons and dials on the device, he turns the volume down and switches to the scan dial to search for a perfect tune. After scanning through, the Ed finds a new song and he removes his hand from the stereo, but before turning up the volume slightly and follow by closing the door.

Once he got up, the ship rocks from an impact, waking up the pilots and they look around in a panic by the sudden shock. The alarms are off and flashing red, which got Eddy out of his seat and rushing over to his turret as the tall Ed walks over to his terminal and climbs up to man the heavy Gravity cannon. The two Eds check around their surroundings to see where the attackers are, but there are no signs of Gummi Heartless, the Pirate Ship or the _Silent Striker_ anywhere. This is making the two boys scratch their heads in confusion as another blow hits the ship.

"Eddy, we're dealing with an invisible adversary!" stated Double D.

"Isn't anything coming up on the radar?" the greedy Ed replied, spinning around his guns to find whoever is attacking them.

The medium Ed looks over at the radar and checks to see if their attacker is out there. Oddly there is nothing on the screen, which is getting the Eds to wonder if the enemy has gotten smarter and start using ways to block their receiver, or that their antenna is broken off during one of the strikes. The radar beeps one time meaning that it is still functioning and that the antenna is in place, which means that whoever they are facing is using something to block or deflect the radar's signals.

There is a bright light coming out from outside and the smart Ed looks out to see a giant wave of energy heading right towards their ship. He grabs onto the controls and swings hard to the left to evade the attack, sending everyone down to the port side. The wave clips the underside of the ship, glazing right by the cockpit, as the wave disperses and Double D levels out the _Midnight Hummer_. The Eds search all over for the search of the blast and another wave appears right before them, and Ed spins around and shoots a Gravity round at the incoming wave. The wave cuts right through the round and Double D tilts the ship once again to dodge, once again glazing by and leveling the ship.

"What the heck is going on?" barked Eddy. "Where are those things coming from?"

"I'm not sure Eddy," replied the smart Ed, "but if we know better, it's got to be one of the people hunting us."

"You mean those one aliens from that one series I watch?" questioned Ed.

"_Yeah, I don't think you're dealing with normal aliens here buddy_," said an annoying voice over the intercom.

"What the…?" is the question from both Eddy and Double D as the view before the smart Ed shifts to a video screen with Prankster on the monitor. The Heartless ghost is laughing hysterically as the others watch in anticipation and worry. "_Hello Ed boys_," said the Heartless. "_Bet you're wondering what's going on, right?_"

"Yes," replied everyone in the cockpit.

"_Well it's just so happen that I was in the neighborhood and when I saw you guys… I figure as much that I need to finally take you down for good_."

"By shooting us down? Fat chance!" stated Eddy. "Double D here will fly away from all of your attacks no matter what you throw at us!"

When this got to Prankster's ears, he lets out a loud laugh before settling down. "_Who said that I was going to take you on here in space?_" he replied. "_Those shots were just to get your vitals warm up_."

"Are you planning what I think you are going to do?" asked Double D.

A nod comes from the ghost boy and the Eds take a gulp as they prepare themselves for the transfer to the Land that Was Forgotten. The boys are expecting to get envelop in a bright blue light just like they did before and after their fight with Blitzer, but nothing is happening at the moment. Eddy and Ed climb out of their terminals and walk up to the main dashboard, with a confused look on their faces, as they begin to wonder why they are not being transferring to the Land that Was Forgotten.

"What's going on?" asked Ed.

"_Well I'm just wondering if I have all three of you here_," said Prankster. "_It's not like I'm going to be fighting just the Keyblade wielding boy, right?"_

"My friends are on this ship," Double D responded. "They were trying to fight you but we couldn't find any signs of you."

"_If you guys are so worry about that, then what's the point of having a surprised welcome? It's no fun having a sneak attack if you can see us_."

"Hey, aren't you going to fight us?" asked Eddy.

"_Oh right, I completely forgot about that_." And with a snap of his fingers, the Eds are surrounded in three balls of bright purple light and they vanish in an instant. Kevin and Nazz are startled by this and they check around to see where did the Eds vanish to, and they look up at the monitor to notice that Prankster is also gone. They figure that he left when the Eds did and they are off to whatever the Heartless is taking them to fight. Now once again alone, the two children sit down at the controls and wait for the Eds to return back.

"Kevin, there's something that I need to ask you," begins Nazz.

OOO

Three purple balls of light appear in the air and the Eds find themselves right above the rocky grounds of the Land that Was Forgotten. They are not far off from the ground, but Normadomus prepares to do an Aero spell, but Ed takes his staff and casts a Terra spell, raising the ground and allowing the Eds to slip down the smooth surface of the rocks to get close to surface level. Once safely on the ground, the boys checks around their surroundings to see where Prankster is hiding, only to get the sound of clapping in their ears.

"Well, well, it looks like you boys are getting the hang of teleporting to this place," came from Prankster. "Maybe that battle with Blitzer has taught you something."

"Where are you?" asked Eddy.

"I'm right in front of you, duh," the Heartless replied.

The Eds look out in front of them to notice the ghost Heartless right before them, but oddly he is standing on the rocks instead of floating above them. On his shoulders is his staff, and the boys notice that there is a scythe blade on the butt of the staff. With his wizard hat tipped down to conceal his Heartless eyes, the Eds look down at the spiral belt buckle that is on the ghost's hat. An open smile widens on the Heartless and the ghost lifts his head up to reveal it to the Eds, showing the same face they recognized from Foster's.

"I have a question for you," asked Double D. "Why are you working for Father, and why are you fighting us?"

"Well for starters, I hear that Father is seeking out the king of all hearts," replied Prankster, "and being a Heartless, I applied with the idea. If it's true, Kingdom Hearts houses several of the more powerful hearts in the universe and eating just one will make me one strong Heartless!"

"Kingdom Hearts?" echoed all three Eds and Normadomus.

"Yes. The Mecca of all hearts and the goal for not only the Heartless, but whoever who craves power! Father may be just a man with an army of Ice Cream Men and two crazed being made from a man who was corrupted by the darkness, but he has an intention bigger than mine and Zip-fly's!"

"And that is?" asked Ed's hat.

"If you want to know, you're gonna have to defeat me!" the Heartless stated, swinging his scythe around and charging right for the boys.

The Eds got themselves ready to fight Prankster by having their weapons out, and just when Eddy tosses his shield, his weapon simply phases right through the ghost and left him wondering why it just did that. Prankster takes his scythe and swings it down, but Eddy recovers his shield and blocks the blade, and he tries kicking the Heartless but that fails as well.

"What's going on?" he asked. "Why aren't my attacks working?"

"Allow me to try," said Double D.

He preps his Keyblade and prepares to parry the Heartless, but Prankster notices this and snaps his staff away from Eddy to shift his attention on the sock-wearing Ed boy. With his open smile growing, the ghost launches himself forward and gets ready to strike, but Double D flashes a smile of his own and casts a Blizzard right in front of the ghost. Prankster notices this coming and he casts his scythe blade away as he phases through the ice and leaves the spell unscathed, leaving the Eds baffled by the turn of events.

"Hey, no fair!" shouted Eddy. "That's cheating!"

The Heartless replies to this remark with sticking his tongue out and Double D takes this moment to strike the Heartless. He raises his Keyblade to strike but when he hits Prankster, the Ed notices that he is hitting the ghost's staff instead and the others are getting annoyed by this. Eddy charges forward and gets kicked back by Prankster's feet and Ed charges up a Thunder spell in hopes of taking the ghost down. Instead Prankster flies up into the air and shocks Double D, turning the smart Ed brown and black from the intense shock.

"Oh man, this is too great!" Prankster laughed. "If you guys keep this up, I'm going to die from laughter!"

"Then just die!" shouted Eddy, taking his shield and tossing it.

Just as Money Maker hits the Heartless, the Eds notice that the ghost is just a clone and they can see the real Prankster in the distance. The greedy Ed lets out a stream of angry rants about how annoying this enemy is and then starts to vent out his frustration by getting a lecture from Double D. After calming down, the boys look into the distance and begin to figure out a way to take on this enemy, but they notice several boulders heading right towards them. Normadomus casts a Reflectara to stop the incoming boulders, and Eddy and Double D got to work on cutting the rocks down to prevent getting hit. Far away, several tall Shadow-like Heartless are picking up some of the rocks and tossing them as Prankster leans back and watches the battle before him.

"Oh boy, this is just great," said Prankster, letting out a few laughs. "As long as those boys stay far away from me, I can concentrate my energy on summoning a couple of my helpers and then this battle will be all mine!"

Over at the Ed's end, the two boys with cutting weapons are getting tired with slicing through the rocks, so they ask Ed to use some of his magic. The tall Ed grabs his staff and calls forth a Thundara spell, sending the massive bolt of electricity right for the Heartless. Prankster watches as the bolt heads right towards him and he gets hit with the full force of the lightning, as the attack shocks the other Heartless as well and vaporizing them. Once the spell is done, the ghost looks around and shrugs himself off from the blow.

"I wasn't expecting that," he said. "Maybe they're catching on with my plan."

"I don't get it," said Double D. "It seems that whatever we can throw at him, he seems to allow each attack to phase right through him."

"That's not an uncommon thing around here," said Normadomus. "I know that there are Heartless who are immune to physical attacks and magic spells, but those kind of Heartless are hard to find around here."

"What exactly are we dealing with here?" asked the greedy Ed.

"Well, I know that a Trick Ghost is immune to physical attacks, so it must be taken down with magic. That is then reversed for Magic Phantoms, as they are immune to magic attacks and must be taken down with physical attacks."

"So, what does that make Prankster?" asked the smart Ed.

"Let's see… he is immune to physical attack, that makes him a Trick Ghost, and he's immune to magic, so that makes him a Magic Phantom as well," the hat explained as it then hits him. "That's impossible! There's no explanation, but that Heartless is a fusion of a Trick Ghost and a Magic Phantom!"

"So what you are saying is that we're fighting an invincible Heartless all this time?" growled Eddy as he looks at Prankster in the distance.

"But that's impossible," repeated Normadomus. "There's no way that a Heartless could be immune to both physical and magical attacks! There has to be some form of weakness to him, even if I have to resort to using Cure on him!"

The Eds look up at Ed's hat in disbelief by this statement, knowing that Cure is going to heal them and not do any sort of damage to Prankster. "Hey, it's a suggestion," he replied. "Besides, I know of a Heartless that can be defeated by only Cure."

"But we're not dealing with that kind of Heartless," Double D pointed out. "We're dealing with a hybrid here, one that is a mix of a Trick Ghost and a Magic Phantom."

"You may want to throw in Cressendo into that mix," the wizard hat added. "They're known for using their trumpets to not only heal Heartless but resurrect them from the dead."

"That explains his summoning motif," the smart Ed said, now getting the connection. "But how do we take down this Heartless if we know what it is made of?"

The hat shrugs in response. "Our hope is keep attacking until we can get a breach in his defense. Until one of our hits hit him and he receives real pain, then we're on the right path."

"My turn!" stated Ed, getting his staff ready for a Shadara attack.

"No Ed, wait!" stated Double D, but his plea is too late.

The tall Ed launches his attack forward at the Heartless in hopes that this will do some damage to him. Prankster can see the dark aura heading right towards him and he stands around waiting for the wave to pass right through him and not allow the pain to succumb him. Just as the wave hits, he immediately feels the effect of Darkness affecting him and his eyesight blackens, causing him to drop his staff and rub his eyes in hopes of clearing them.

"Ed you dolt, are you not listening to your hat?" snapped the greedy Ed, grabbing onto his friend's coat and shaking the tall boy. "That Heartless is invincible to all of our attacks and that's not even going to affect him one bit!"

"Um Eddy, I believe that attack did affect him," mumbled the smart Ed, pointing out towards the blinded Prankster struggling to regain his eyesight.

Eddy stops his shaking and drops Ed so that he can look out and watch Prankster float about back and forth. "Oh yeah, you're right. Now this is our chance to strike!"

"You're right!" Double D stated, getting his Keyblade ready as all three Ed charge towards the Heartless to finally lay some damage on him.

Prankster continues to wipe his eyes in hopes of regaining his sight, but he can hear the sound of the Eds charging right towards him. He panics slightly and feels around the ground for his staff so that he can get away from the boys. Once finding his weapon, the ghost zips away, heading straight thanks to him being blind, and he begins to wonder which end of the staff he picked up.

_Which end, which end, which end?_ he questioned in his head, feeling back and forth until bumping his head on the ring that makes the top of his staff. He lets out a sigh of relief as a bolt of lightning strikes down on him and slows him down to recover from that blast. The ghost can hear the Eds closing in on him and he is starting to regain his eyesight back, so he stops in his track and flips his staff around to summon the scythe blade and fight the Eds up and close.

The Heartless leaps in and swings down with his scythe, but Double D intercepts this attack by using his Keyblade and Eddy steps in to use his shield's sharp corners on the Heartless. With the Darkness fading away, the ghost can finally see what is happening and he allows the shield to phase through him while he backs away from the Fire spell from Ed and uses his staff to block it. The smart Ed uses a Thunder spell but Prankster conducts it through his staff and he sends the bolt back down on the Eds and disperses them while giving his typical laughing.

Eddy is getting furious with this so he takes his shield and tosses one again, and Prankster reacts by heading towards the ground and watches the shield fly overhead. However, he not suspect the shield to come from behind and this finally got the Eds their first major blow by having Money Maker pierce the Heartless right in the back and carry over right back to the Ed who tossed it. Once Eddy got his shield back, the boys cheer for this as Prankster feels his back to touch the wound.

"There's… There's no way that they could have done that," he said. "I must've forgotten that his shield comes back to him. But… how did he control it like that?"

As the Heartless is left to puzzle over his wound, this gives the Eds the opportunity to strike once again. With a glimpse in the side of his eye, the ghost takes notice of the boys and begins to deflect their attacks his with staff, knocking away blow after blow as they continue to strike down the Heartless. Prankster takes his staff, gives it a good twirl with one hand, and he slices through with one clean sweep, knocking the boys back as the ghost continues to wonder about the wound that is on his back.

"No… no, it isn't possible. There's no such way for a shield to pierce me," he mumbled, sounding bewildered. "Yeah, there's no way that anything can hurt me. I am invincible to all attacks, and that one attack was just nothing. Yes, that shield was only an illusion in my insane mind of mine!"

"Uh Eddy, is he all right?" asked Ed.

The small Ed opens his mouth to respond but the Heartless lets out a maniacal laughter loud enough and chilling enough to put all three Eds on nerves. Prankster is going to a deep ramble about how everything is nothing to him and about the insanity he suffering all while bursting out a stream of crazed and lunatic laughs in-between gasps of breaths. The boys would take this opportunity to strike, but they are too afraid to get near a Heartless that is on the verge of snapping from reality and go into his own crazy little world.

"I'm insane," the Heartless replied. "Completely and utterly insane, I'll tell ya! There's no stopping the insanity! The only way to prevent that is to have a weak heart, but where's the fun of not having a little insanity in ya?"

"Man, this guy got more than a few screws loose in his noggin," Eddy replied.

"I don't want to know what kind of person he used to be," Normadomus answered, sounding a bit frighten.

"Oh, my former host wasn't that bad of a host," Prankster replied. "In fact, he was a very sane man ever since he began his research. It's too bad that his heart was powerful enough to make both me and Zip-fly, and that he died a tragic death, but I can say that Death has better plans for him… but for us, that's an entirely different story."

"Uh, should we continue fighting him?" asked Ed.

"Ha, please! If you were to continue fighting me, you're going to be running out of breath and be left here to die!" the Heartless ripped. "You've already tried everything you can throw at me and you only got one hit in. You're gonna have to try harder than that to take me down!"

"We'll do whatever it takes you down," Double D replied. "We will defeat you and we will return to our ship safe and sound."

The ghost lets out a laugh in response. "I like to see you try. In case you forgot, there's no way of getting off this world, and I'm the only one left that's capable of sending you guys back! If you take me down, there's no way of getting you back!"

"Just. Shut. UP!" roared Eddy as he takes his shield and gives it a mighty throw.

Prankster moves back out of range and begins to take off in the opposite direction, letting out a "Catch me if you can!" before leaving the Eds behind. Eddy grits his teeth in anger as he turns to his smart friend and asks to summon his motorcycle. Double D nods to this and he holds out his Keyblade so that he can get ready to ride the Joker Hovercycle. After a few seconds of waiting, Joker's Wild turns into the hovercycle and Ed got himself behind Double D as Eddy takes out his yo-yo to wrap around the spoiler and plant his shield on the ground so that he can ride it.

With the engine roaring to life, Double D takes off and begins the pursuit of Prankster as the Eds ride off on the Joker Hovercycle to chase down their adversary. The Heartless takes notice of the motorcycle riding Ed boys heading right towards him and he begins to use whatever he can conjure up in hopes of slowing them down. With using rocks and small Heartless, Double D out-maneuvers through these obstacles as they continue to chase down Prankster and hope to lay another hit on the Heartless. Eddy swings from the back and gets ready to strike, but Prankster takes his scythe and swings it, missing not only the small Ed but the other boys as well.

The chase continues for a few minutes until the ghost decides to come up with a perfect way to defeat the hovercycle. Taking his staff, he gives it a good spin and summons a wall ahead of him. The low wall is enough, in his mind, to stop the Eds dead in their tracks and they can go flying into the rocky ground below. The Heartless flies over the wall he created and stops to watch the Eds crash into the wall, and waits for his results to come true. Double D notices the wall coming up and tries to steer to be parallel with the wall, but he did not get enough time to slow down, so the crash was predicted.

The boys are sent flying over the wall, getting Eddy and Ed flying farther than the smart Ed. The hovercycle disappears from Double D and transforms back to its Keyblade form, as the smart Ed hits the ground and skids across the rocky surface for a bit. The other two are not that lucky as Ed comes to a tumbling halt, and Eddy is sailing on for a bit before hitting a flat rock with his face and falls onto his back. Prankster lets out a heavy laugh for the boys' crash and landing, mocking them for their attempt to get around the barrier and prevent from crashing.

Eddy picks himself up from his fall and he takes his shield to swing at the Heartless, but he misses every swing he throws at him. "Hey stand still, O mighty ruler of my nether cheese," he said in a woozy tone before falling back to the ground.

"You said that all wrong Eddy," Ed pointed out.

"You're friend is not immune to the non-sequitur thuds, is he?" asked Prankster.

"Apparently, he does not," replied the smart Ed.

"Oh well, that gives the chance to do this!" The Heartless takes his tail and forms a single leg so that he can kick Eddy up send him flying in the air. Prankster takes off to chase down the Ed and he whips his staff around, beating the small boy up as the Heartless' smile goes wider in anticipation. Once they are at the peak, Prankster takes his staff and summons his scythe blade, getting it ready to swing it down, but Ed spins his staff and shoots off a Fire spell right at the ghost. The fireball hits the ghost, burning him and knocking him back to the ground as the fallen Ed heads back down to the ground. Normadomus got an Aerora going to help Eddy from his fall, and he quickly restores the boy back to normal by using Curaga, allowing the Ed to get back on his feet and get ready to fight once again, but right before the smart Ed stops them all and acknowledges what he is thinking.

"I think I just solve this dilemma!" stated Double D. "I now know how to defeat Prankster now!"

"How so?" asked Ed.

"It's all about his staff! The reason why we can't do any damage to him is all because of his staff," the smart Ed explained. "It's all like this: whenever he has his scythe blade out and up and close to us, he has immunity to our physical attacks meaning that our magic should do the trick. Whenever he has his staff upright and further away from us, he has immunity to magic attacks and our normal attacks will do the trick."

"I see where you are going with this," said Ed's hat. "Whenever Prankster is close to us with his scythe, he is preventing us from using our magic by provoking us to resort to our physical attacks. And then when he is farther away from us, our physical attacks won't even touch him and we have no worries of using our magic."

"So that means we should knock that staff out of his hands," said Eddy. "If that thing is out of his hands, then that means he's a sitting duck!"

"But we don't know what will happen if his staff is out of his hands," Double D pointed out. "He may be invincible to all of our attacks or he could be weak to them, so we can't just rely on knocking his staff out of his hands."

"Well, well, it looks like you figure out my secret," said Prankster, overhearing the boys' conversation. "Yes, my staff is the key to my survival in this fight and without it I'm much of a sitting duck. But you think you can knock this thing out of my hand. Guess what? You're gonna have to get through my bag of tricks before reaching me!"

The Heartless got his staff spinning and he allows his scythe to cut through the air and create a rift right in front of him. Prankster takes a hand and reaches into the rift, feeling around for something to use and he pulls out his arm to reveal what he is grabbing for. What he pulled out is a massive bazooka large enough to stick a human into the barrel, and he aims the gun and preps the rocket inside to launch. The Eds panic by the sight of the massive gun and Eddy raises his shield nervously as Prankster pulls the trigger and launches the large projectile.

As the rocket draws near, Double D casts a Blizzard spell in hopes that he can freeze the projectile. However, the projectile hits the large crystal and explodes on impact, sending millions of small ice shards flying away from the epicenter. Those shards are blocked by Normadomus' Reflectara but Prankster is not that lucky as he is not holding onto his staff and is getting cuts all over his body. Once the explosion fades away, Prankster looks down at himself and he tosses the bazooka into the rift in anger after its failed attempt, and he reaches back into the rift to see if he can use something else.

A cold metal objects hits his hand and the Heartless smiles widely as he pulls out a really large drill from the rift. The Ed boys look in astonishment by the sheer size of the drill and the Heartless lowers it right at the boy as he prepares to send the drill right for them. With the drill spinning, Prankster pushes the drill forward and Eddy got his shield in the way as sparks begin flying from the impact. The ghost is laughing at the top of his lungs as Eddy struggles to prevent the drill from getting any nearer, and Ed taps him on the shoulder to ask the small Ed a question.

Eddy nods in response and he quickly moves out of the way to allow Ed to do his thing. The thing in particular deals with the drill and the tall Ed opens his mouth and chomps down on the spinning tip. The drill continues to move, quickly losing speed before stopping all together. Prankster begins to wonder if the Ed has enough force to prevent the drill from spinning, but the force of the spin is driving into his arm and the Heartless is consume by the spin. Still gripping on to the drill, the ghost is spinning around and around, making him a black blur, until he loses his grip and is sent flying across the field. Ed lets his mouth free from the drill and he tosses it back into the rift, in which it seals up and cuts itself off from this dimension.

"All right, that's it!" stated Prankster. "It's about time that I finish this, and I'm going to do it with just my scythe!"

He reaches for his weapon of choice and he charges right for the Eds, with rage burning in his eyes and gripping hard onto his staff. Double D decides to take this attack and draws his Keyblade so that he can intercept this and block it. Prankster raises his scythe blade and Double D got his Keyblade into position, and the two made contact, causing a small trade of power between the two before the both of them notice a small spark. Just when they saw the spark, Prankster is sent flying backwards as if he got hit with a powerful blow into his chest, and the Heartless hits the ground rolling with his staff tumbling off and finally breaking into two.

"His staff…" said Eddy. "It broke… then that means…"

Ed takes this moment to get a Fire spell going and launch the fireball, sending it towards the fallen Heartless and burning him. Eddy got his shield ready and he gives it a few tosses as Double D casts all of the spells he knows, including his Light spell. The boys spent most of their time trading blows, each giving off different attacks before all three unite for a finishing attack on the Heartless. Eddy takes his shield and gives it a good toss, as Double D got a Blizzard spell right above Prankster and Ed shooting a Thundara at Eddy's shield. With all three attacks meet, the following cause an explosion powerful enough to rip away the rocks surrounding the area and to get Normadomus to create a barrier to protect them. Once the explosion is over, the barrier is drop and they notice that Prankster has taken serious damage, meaning that the attack is a success.

Finally, the Eds got their moment of victory and they wait in anticipation for Prankster to disappear and leave behind his heart. However, the only thing coming from the Heartless is his maniacal laughter, and the Eds look in horror as the ghost rises up from his devastating blow and laughs off the pain. Prankster picks up his broken staff and swings it onto his shoulder, conjuring up his scythe blade as he looks at the boys in gleeful rage.

"Come on!" screamed Eddy. "Is there anything that is going to take this guy down?"

"There might be something," said Double D, taking out one of his charms. In his hands is the first charm that he picked up back in Washington, D.C, and he fears for whatever this charm is going to call. He flips the back to see the name of the charm written there, and he looks up to notice the Heartless heading right towards the boys with his scythe ready to swing. "I hope this works!"

The smart Ed takes a step back and pitches the charm right at the charging Heartless. The charm hits Prankster in the forehead, causing him to stop in his tracks and grab his head in pain before noticing the shiny charm right at his feet. "Ooh, shiny," he cooed, picking the charm up. "Cool, a summoning charm. I wonder what it summons."

The Heartless flips the back and he reads off the name of the charm, before mumbling the name to himself. "There's something about that name that seems so…" Prankster said before the answer dawns on him. "Oh… crap."

The charm drops to the ground and it begins to spark vigorously, casting up ropes and smoke as the Heartless backs away from the summon charm. The ropes take notice of Prankster and wraps around his arms and waist as the being of the charm comes out from the gem and presents itself before the terrified Heartless. A stitched smile appears on the summon's hood and he spins around the Heartless ghost before stopping right in front of Prankster.

"Well, well, it appears that someone hasn't learned his lesson," the ghost said. "You can't trust this charm, whether you're using this on someone or yourself."

"Hey, I wasn't trying to summon you!" snapped Prankster. "It was their idea! They're the ones that threw the charm at me and forced me to say your name!"

"You still said my name," the ghost replied. "If you say it, I will come and take you away."

"That's no fair! I want a fair trial for all of this! I want to…" A spare rope whips around the Heartless' mouth and cuts off the rest of his sentence as the hooded ghost takes the end of the rope around Prankster's waist and drags the Heartless away. Just as the ghost begins to disappear, it turns around and gives the boys a small salute, and it continues to drag Prankster away from the Land that Was Forgotten.

The Eds watch as their latest victory fades away into thin air, and the sudden realization that they are trap on this world hits them hard. All three boys got to panicking about how they are going to get back to their ship, but at that moment three bright lights circle around the boys and cover them. The balls of light pick the boys up and takes them up into space before disappearing and teleporting back to their ship, allowing them to get a small glimpse of what really is the Land that Was Forgotten.

OOO

"Yes Nazz?"

"You remember us kissing back at that one world, right?"

"Yeah, I remember that. Why you ask?"

"Well… it's just that…" the blonde got her words stuck in her throat and she chokes for a bit before facing Kevin with a serious look on her face. "I don't think that you really kissed me."

"What? What are you talking about?" the jock replied. "I did kiss you!"

"No you didn't!" snapped Nazz. "I can feel that you kissed another girl back there! Just who did you kissed anyway?"

The young mechanic looks at the blonde with his face red in embarrassment and he turns away to hide his face. He knows that Nazz thinks he has kissed a different girl, but that girl that he saw… was she someone that he knows or was that really a figment of his imagination? Or was she from another form of reality, since she does bear some resemblance to Double D, as if she was his twin sister or something, but he knows for a fact that the Ed does not have a sister. Or does he?

"Kevin!"

"Oh… right, I forgot."

"You forgot? How could you forget?"

"No, I don't mean it like that! I was spacing out there and I was trying to remember that girl, but I don't think she was anyone you know."

"Then who was it?" asked Nazz.

Just as Kevin opens his mouth to speak, three balls of light illuminate right over the two children and the two got out of their chairs as two of the lights lower down and materialize Eddy and Double D. Ed materialize right behind Kevin and Nazz, startling the two as Ed walks up and begins to talk to the two driving the ship. The jock and the blonde got up and start asking the Eds where they have been and how did they got back here, which also got the Eds to ask the same question.

"Say, how long were we gone for?" asked Double D.

"About a minute," replied Nazz.

"I thought so. I guess that we must have traveled to a different dimension, which explains the time difference, but what puzzles me is how we got back this time. Prankster explains that only he has the ability to send us back and the other person who can do that was Blitzer, so was Prankster nice enough to send us back?"

"Are you kidding?" replied Eddy. "That Heartless was a maniac! There's no way that he was nice to send us back!"

"But still, how did we get back here?" the smart Ed questioned.

There is silence for the moment, until Ed offers a suggestion. "Spiral power?"

"I don't think that is the source of getting us back," said Normadomus. "For all that I know about magic, someone must be pulling the strings and must be helping us out from the outside."

"Maybe, or it could be that Prankster was nice enough to accept his defeat and send us back after being dragged away," added Double D. He looks down at the radar and is getting readings of a world far away. "Well, at least this little experience helped us clear the field down."

"Yeah," Eddy sighs. "We got rid of that Unversed and the Heartless. All that remains is that Nobody…"

"… Zip-fly," mumbled Double D, gripping onto the controls. "And once we are done with him, we still have to deal with that pilot and Father, for all we know are tough adversaries."

"Then we have our work cut out," the greedy Ed said, letting out a smirk. "We'll just keep on fighting until we're strong enough to take those three down, and then it'll be no time before everyone's reunited and possibly back on our world!"

"Row, row, fight the power!" Ed blurted randomly.

"I like your encouragement, Ed," said Nazz, chiming in. "And you don't want to forget about us, dude. We'll be rooting for you all the way."

"No matter what happens, all that we need is for you to come back in one piece," added Kevin and the Eds nod in return.

"Well, let's call up Dexter and inform him to get our ship ready for repairs," the smart Ed said, flipping some switches to get the _Midnight Hummer_ off auto-pilot and back under his control.

Once the auto-pilot is off, Double D grabs onto the throttle and increases the speed of the thrusters, adding more thrust as the Gummi ship takes off for Traverse Town one more time. With their fighting spirit guiding them and the encouragement from the others, the Eds can continue their fight against the Heartless and Father as they continue their travels across this universe. In the distance, the _Silent Striker_ sits perfectly still, with Mask watching the _Midnight Hummer_ fly off towards Traverse Town, and the teen is leaning back in his chair with a smile on his masked face.

"Fight on, my friends," he said out loud. "You're going to need if you're going to fight Father and Zip-fly."

OOO

**End of Act II**

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**

And that's the end of Act II people! I finally got to use my first charm in this story! You didn't expect to be seeing Candle Jack this far, right?

Well, if I like to say something, you should know a little something about _Kingdom Hearts_ that I learned from the wiki: if you were to defeat a Heartless before a Nobody, that person can be reborn. However, if you defeat a Nobody and then the Heartless, then that person ceases to exist! It's amazing what you can learn. So does that mean when the Eds fight Zip-fly, would that mean they will combine and make up their original body?

… That'll be for the interquel sequel for this story.

So what you saw in this chapter is that Prankster is not a normal Heartless ghost, as I am still working out on the character. There is a chance of him reappearing later on in this story, but I need to get through the third act before I decide the fate of everyone in this story. Believe me on this one: Once this story ends, all that you know is going to change when I start the final story in this trilogy of mine! I'm guarantee that I'll bring surprise after surprise and I'm not going to stop until I achieve the ultimate ending for this trilogy!

So once again I like for you all to review, thank you very much. Coming up is a return trip to Traverse Town and the return of a famous cartoon only known as


	16. Act III, Ch 16: Traverse Town III

All right, it's time to begin the third act in this story, this time taking things into this decade. That's right, after spending the last act coming out from Cartoon Network's downfall, we are arriving into the start of its revival! The age that we knew as the Dark Age where there were only a handful of decent shows, moderate shows and others that are just downright revolting, along with the introduction of the most dreaded thing to come onto the station... live action (in my opinion, the movie _Re-Animated_ isn't that bad and neither is _Tower Prep_ or _Unnatural History_. Yes I like these shows so don't flame me for liking them), is all long and gone and we are entering is a haven to where censorship is a thing of the past, jokes are darker, sick and funny and we are seeing more and more good quality cartoons to come out of the network.

Welcome to 2010, people!

Actually... this is a bit of a step back. This came to me in a brain fart, and I really love the series during its time of being on the air. I know this was back in the Millennium Age, but somehow I wanted to throw this in. Plus, we'll begin the New Decade once we get to Chapter Eighteen.

And so... let's begin. ... Whoa hold on! I need to say one thing before we begin. On my profile page, I should have a link to the theme that is going to be part of what I am going to do in this chapter. So if you want to listen to it as you get to the world, just open up my profile, click on the link, and enjoy the music. I hope you do.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

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Chapter Sixteen – Return to Lyoko

OOO

"Well we're back," groans Eddy as they walk on through the business district. "Good ol' Traverse Town."

"I never thought that I would be glad to come back here," moans Double D, collapsing onto the ground along with Eddy and Ed.

"My feet are sore!" Ed whines.

"What's wrong with you?" a voice above the Eds asked. The three look up to notice Kevin and Nazz hovering right above them, only to realize that it was the former that asked the question. "Why are you so tired right now when you guys were full of energy back on the ship?"

"I'm sorry Kevin, but we have been going at this non-stop every since we got here," the smart Ed replied, getting up from the cobblestone ground. "We hadn't got a single break in a long time and all we want to do is sit down, enjoy a good meal, and just relax."

"I could use some buttered toast right now," ordered Ed, muffled by having his face covered by the ground below.

"Double D does strike up a good idea Kevin," said Nazz. "I could use a good bath after what I have been through and maybe a fancy dinner at one of the restaurants here. Know any good spots we can dine, dude?"

"There should be one café that I usually attend in the second district," Normadomus answered, "but the place is closed around this time, so you lucked out on that."

"That stinks. Then is there any place that is open where we can get something in our stomachs?"

"We can try heading over to where TOM lives and ask there," Double D pitched. "The others are there and should be some open rooms for the two of you to stay. In which that reminds me, the others and I need to ask Dexter about installing a new Gummi block that can allow us to explore more of this universe of ours."

All three Eds got back up onto their feet and they head towards where TOM is living. As they reach their destination, the children notice Dexter standing at the door with another person at the door. But this person is not really human, as this being is a living boulder with a narrow head, with two horns on top of his head, arms that look very strong and elephant-like legs. All for clothing for this being is an apron and a white uniform underneath, and the being is handing over a bag to Dexter as the boy hands the being some Munny.

"Here you go, Schnitzel," said Dexter. "Thanks for your service."

"Radda, radda," replied the being, walking away from the door and waving to the boy. Just as Dexter heads inside, he notices the Eds walking up to the door. "Oh hey guys, how have you been?"

"Oh the usual," replied Eddy. "Just fighting the Heartless and getting our friends back."

"Well, the others are safe and sound here," the boy genius said, pointing inside. "You can go see them if you want."

"I do like to see Rolf," said Kevin, "but I'm not sure about the Kankers…"

"Don't worry Kevin, you have me," Nazz replied," grabbing onto his arm as she drags him inside.

"So Dexter, do you have a new Gummi block that will help us out?" asked Double D.

"Yes I do. It's in my lab, waiting to be installed. I'll let you guys see it if you want."

The three Eds look at each other and they question it to each other before turning to the boy genius and give him a nod. With the redhead leading them, he got them to the room where he first appeared from, only to notice a sign reading "Keep Out" hanging out in front. Dexter stops in front of this door and pulls out a set of keys, and he unlocks the door but he leaves his hand on the doorknob and has his head hanging low.

"I just have to ask this..." Dexter trails off as he pulls his head up to look squarely at the Eds. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Why?" asked all three at once.

"Because what am I about to show you have not been shown off to anyone else, not even my sister," the boy genius explained. "My friend and I have been straying at this for a long time and we are looking for people to trust in this experiment we are working on. After knowing what you are capable of doing, I feel that I should show you what we've been working on."

"But why are you asking us to keep a secret?" Double D asked as he is not certain rather or not that Dexter is really keeping a secret from the others.

"Because we don't want the others to find out what we are working on," Dexter hissed. "We will tell them what we are trying to do, but they must never know what we are working with or the secret about this will spread across the universe and everyone will try to get their hands on it!"

"Well whatever it is, it better be worth it," Eddy hissed back.

Dexter nods to this and he twists the doorknob to get the door open, allowing the boys access to this mysterious room. The Eds enter the room and they begin to take notice of the technology within the room. All around, the lab itself is very large, with pipes and wires clinging onto the walls and snaking across the floor. There are large cables coming from giant outlets that are pumping out electricity, all of which are heading for a table displaying a holographic map and an extremely large computer. The Eds are amazed by what is going on in this room, and more notably by what is front of them.

"Gentlemen, I like to present you to a good friend of mine," said Dexter, motioning to the large computer with someone sitting in front of it.

In the black leather chair sits a boy a few years older than the Eds, typing away at the keys and adjusting his glasses every once in a while. His eyes are glue to the screen, which is featuring several displays of data, including charts, character sheets, and a large map with blips on the grid map. The Eds got closer to look at the screen to see what is on there, seeing the four character sheets of two boys and two girls, and the boy sitting in the chair lets out a stern cough.

"You mind stepping back?" the boy in the chair asked. The Eds did so and the boy spins around to face the Eds. From what they are seeing, he is a blonde, wearing a blue turtleneck, gray pants and brown loafers, along with a pair of black rimmed glasses. "Well then, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jérémie and I am a former student of Kadic Academy."

"Former?" echoed Double D. "Are you a drop-out?"

"Oh no, I make good grades and I don't have much a future outside of what I normally do if I did drop out," the boy replied. "In fact, my world was taken over by the Heartless, which let me alone with just notes and memories of that dreadful day."

"You see, Jérémie here was a more unique case when it comes with the Heartless," said Dexter. "After his home was taken over, he survived with a few data files that were enough to build all of this. Of course, he had yours truly to help out."

"And I still can't repay you for all the help," the boy Jérémie said, tipping his glasses up. "It's also a good thing for a supercomputer being in this town, or otherwise I wouldn't have access to Lyoko with just what I have."

"Lyoko?" asked Ed. "Is it some sort of game?"

"Fray, but can you explain what exactly happened to you?" asked Double D.

"Jérémie here and his friends are part of a group that helps save not only his school, but his country from a virtual threat more dangerous than the Heartless," the redhead explained. "He and his friends fight in Lyoko to defeat this threat, deactivating these towers and prevent whatever is happening in this universe and reverse the damage."

"And as for Lyoko, it is in some ways yes while others... not so much," said Jérémie. "You see, Lyoko is a virtual world that my friends and I discovered a few years back, and we found out about all sorts of information about the world, with the existence of other supercomputers in the universe, Aelita being part of Lyoko, and the worst of all... X.A.N.A."

"X.A.N.A? What exactly is that?" asked Eddy, not knowing much about computers.

"X.A.N.A. was a program created by one Franz Hopper for the government, but it turned against its creator and started creating havoc," explained Jérémie. "But that was when my friends and I found out about the world of Lyoko and somehow we ended up here."

"How did you end up here?" asked Double D.

Jérémie spins around in his chair to face the computer screen. "You see... X.A.N.A. managed to get involved with the Heartless, only to gain more power through them that eventually took over the supercomputer at the factory, and then spread its evil across my world. While I made it out, my friends are still trapped in Lyoko, and I ended up here in Traverse Town with nothing but a notebook and a few flash drives."

"It's interesting that his notes contain the very instructions to build these," said Dexter, pointing to three tall columns.

"Those are Virtualization Chambers," said Jérémie. "Those are used to transport people in and out of Lyoko. I can send people in through here and to get out is something else though. You can either lose your entire LP – your life points – or I can use a program that allows you to transfer out."

"We are still working on that, but we figure that since Double D here wields the Keyblade, it might help us with our current goal," said Dexter.

"What do you want us to do?" Double D asked.

"We want you to go to Lyoko, find the activated tower in the sector I am going to send you to, use the Keyblade and hopefully I can get everyone, including you, out of Lyoko," Jérémie answered.

"_Hey Jérémie, I know this is a bad time, but we need some back-up here_!" shouted a boy's voice through a speaker.

"I am working on it Odd, just calm down," Jérémie said, turning to face the computer. He notices that his friends are surrounded by several red blips, meaning there is trouble. The Eds look at each other and they huddle together to come up with an answer. Once they decided, they break from their huddle and approach Jérémie. "We are willing to help out," said Double D.

"All right," Jérémie said, clapping his hands together. "Just step into the chambers and I should have you three in the computer in no time."

"So how about this Ed, you get to be part of a video game," said Eddy.

"It's like a dream come true!" the tall Ed replied. "All except there are no chickens to greet me, or a river made out of gravy."

"All right, I am getting ready to send you to the Forest Sector," Jérémie said, imputing the coordinates. "There is an activated tower to the north of where you're going to land, and the others are heading in your direction. Once you meet up with them, head for the tower and make sure X.A.N.A. doesn't get there first."

The doors to the Virtualizations Chambers open up and the Eds quickly step in, turning around so that they can face the real world before the doors closing on them. Inside, they could feel a strange sensation flowing through them, and they got themselves ready for the transfer to Lyoko.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" asked Dexter, getting up on the chair so he can see the computer.

"I've done this plenty of times," Jérémie replied. "They are going to have a hard time with the landing, but it's nothing to worry about. I'm more worry about my friends and Aelita, that's all."

Jérémie begins typing away on the keys, imputing several commands involving getting the Eds into the computer and getting their virtual copies ready once they are in Lyoko. Jérémie eyes over a bar telling him each Ed is ready for the jump from reality to virtual, and he presses the Enter button three times for each Ed.

"Transfer... Scanning... Virtualization."

OOO

In a calm setting, a sea of trees dot the landscape with trails paved right between these towering works of wonders. Oddly, this is not a typical forest as the trees are not connected to any soil, and the ground is floating above what appears to be a large body of water. There are several thick cables running through this forest, with some pumping red energy through them, and an occasional creature flying through the trees in search of any prey in this strange setting.

Three digital grids appear and the Ed boys are coming into existence, with each being form through adding pixels onto their bodies. Once they are fully digitalized, the boys drop down onto the ground and they landed on their rear ends, which is odd since they are used to being teleporting. "_Maybe I should have warned you three about the transfer_," said the voice of Jérémie. "_At first the landing is rough, but once you get used to the transfer, the landing will be no problem_."

"Thanks for the head's up," said Double D, stretching out his arms. "I feel very different than usual."

"_Well you are getting used to being digital, that's all_," explained Jérémie. "_This is just an avatar of yourself. You're basically a video game character with your thoughts and personality_."

"My fantasy came true! I am a video game character!" Ed shouted excitedly.

"Hey, where exactly are you?" asked Eddy, looking all around the forest.

"_We're back here in the real world_," replied the voice of Dexter. "_We're monitoring you from here, giving you Intel about what's around you and what's coming near you_."

"_And speaking of coming near you_," said Jérémie, "_your reinforcements have arrived_. _Just be careful of stray lasers_."

As soon the Eds heard that last statement, a red laser beam zips right in-between them and the boys back away from it as they look down where the source of the laser came from. Down the way, they notice three children about the same as Jérémie heading right towards the boys, and the Eds can see three small sack-like creatures with four legs, a big red eye and a bull's-eye like pattern on the sack. The small creatures are firing off lasers and the three children being chased deflect the lasers, as one boy leaps off of a tree and shoots some arrow tips into the pattern and destroying them.

A few more creatures appear from behind, with these consisting of a large, red crab-like robot and three insects flying right above. The newcomers groan upon seeing the insects and Ed starts to drool while seeing the crab, making a low grumbling sound in his stomach, and Eddy snaps him out of his trance to focus on the battle. However, the three newcomers are already busy taking care of the enemies, with each using their respective weapons to defeat the bugs and the large crab. The Eds got the chance to take part in this battle, with Eddy and Ed helping to bring the insects down and Double D to defeat the crab.

The two long range Eds meet up with a girl dressed in a geisha-like attire, consisting of a red and black kimono with a yellow sash, red tights under high black boots with white tape going around the lower portion of her leg, long white gloves and her face white due to the make-up, and her black hair tied up matching to that of a geisha. Also meeting them is a boy with blonde hair collecting up to a point and a small patch of it being purple. The rest of him consists of wearing a cat-like outfit, wearing yellow shoes and kneepads, purple pants and a sleeveless shirt, with a pink undershirt underneath, a real cat tail, and four-fingered cat gloves. On the boy's shirt is a yellow circle with a dog in the middle, and the dog appears to be peeing…

Towards the crab, Double D is teaming up with another boy who is dressed similar to a samurai without the armor. His outfit has a balanced color scheme of yellow, orange and brown as he sports a kimono over a tight brown shirt. He is also wearing tight pants, along with long socks and wooden sandals, plus a gauntlet covering his right hand and a headband wrapped around his head. In hand, he is wielding a katana but the Ed can see that there are very small blue 0's and 1's making up the blade. The crab begins to charge up for a laser and the two got out of the way just as the laser fired, and the sword wielding boys slice through the crab to destroy it.

The two Eds helping the other newcomers are struggling for a bit, still getting used to roaming in the virtual world and trying to take down the insects, and the two Eds notice that the girl is using fans as her main weapons of choice. Eddy takes his shield and gives it a toss, but one of the bugs dodges it but gets hit with the fan. The cat boy got an arm ready and fires an arrow but the remaining bug dodges that, but Ed launches a Fire spell to burn it to pieces. Once all six of finish dealing with their respective monster, they huddle together to talk among each other.

"So what were those things?" asked Eddy. "Are those Heartless?"

"They're not Heartless," replied the geisha. "Those are some of X.A.N.A's monsters sent out to take us down."

"If those were Heartless, you can tell by their symbol on them," said the samurai. "It's a bit of a mistake to confuse them but you'll learn once you get the hang of this place."

"Besides, if those were Heartless, they'll appear much different back where we came from," replied the cat boy.

"Yes. So, who are you three?" asked Double D. "Are you fellows from here or from the real world?"

"We actually came from a place that you now call Hollow Bastion," said the samurai. "The reason we're here is because X.A.N.A. was cooperating with the Heartless and someone else…"

"The last thing we did was Aelita deactivating the tower and we found ourselves stuck here on Lyoko," the geisha continued. "We think this has to do with the factory being overrun by Father and making it over to his image."

"So you guys came from Hollow Bastion?" Eddy questioned. "Do you guys know all about your friend moving to Traverse Town?"

"_Of course_," replied the boy in question. "_I've been informing them ever since I established a connection here in TOM's place. Of course with Dexter's help, we got this lab going to get everything laid out for our plan_."

"And what plan is that?" the greedy Ed asked.

"_You guys are going to help out my friends in getting out of Lyoko_," replied Jérémie. "_According to the information that I got, if Double D's Keyblade has the power that I'm looking for, he should be able to get a connection going from the tower and up to here_."

"Are you certain that is going to work?" asked Double D. "I know we've seen some things that trump logic and science, but having my Keyblade to establish a connection from here to the real world seems a bit

"Double D, we got this far with some questions unanswered," said Eddy. "I doubt that we're going to get a real answer from him."

"_I'm certain that this is going to work. If I can figure out how to get the guys to go to an unknown sector by deciphering a six letter word, then I'm sure that you can use your Keyblade to help get my friends out_."

"Well, we don't have much to do anyway," said the smart Ed. "Dexter is fixing up our ship and we got plenty of time in-between then, and we're already here, so we'll help out."

After hearing this, the newcomers greet each other to the Eds, naming each off with the samurai being Ulrich, the geisha Yumi and the cat boy Odd. The three tell that there is one more with them that Yumi called Aelita that is trapped as well, and Jérémie reports in about her location being up ahead. The three warriors got a head start on the Eds, going off to find their other friend, leaving the Ed boys to wonder about what they are going to do before Eddy stops Odd and asks him a question.

"Say, do we look any different?" asked the greedy Ed.

The blonde takes a good look at each three, planting a paw on his chin before resting his decision. "Well… it's a lot different from we normally see around here," he said. "Are those your normal clothes?"

The Eds look down and they finally notice that their clothes have not changed since they entered Lyoko, which makes sense to them since their clothes changed a long time ago and another clothing change will not do any justice for the boys. Pushing that aside, the boys team up with the warriors and head off to find Aelita, who is only a few yards away and she is getting chase down by a few monsters of her own. There are those sack-like creatures, along with yellow cubes, with white circles in the middle on each face, on orange crab legs following right behind. The warriors charge forward with the Eds right behind and the long range fighters got the head's-up on the creatures, luring them away from Aelita as she recovers from them.

There are six of the creatures meaning that each one of the fighters can take care of one of the monsters at a time, so they break away from each other to fight the creatures. Double D gets into a stand-off with a cube creature, holding his Keyblade ready to strike as the cube takes a few steps and spins its cube body around. Eddy raises his shield and deflects the lasers being shot at him from a sack creature, lowering and raising it to wherever the creature is shooting. Ed got his staff spinning and got himself ready to use a Thundara but the sack creature he is fighting charges up one shot, and he got out of the way in time to hit the tree he was standing in front of.

Odd is up on a tree, keeping his feet off of the ground as the cube monster he is fighting shoots at him. The cat boy uses his arrows to knock it down, but the creature is smarter than he thinks it is. Ulrich is also in a stand-off with the last cube creature, with both foes going around in a circle as they wait for one to make their move. Yumi has her two fans out and deflecting the lasers that are being shot at her, as she eyes the little sack creature that is annoying her at that moment. With a flick of her wrist and a flick of his, both Eddy and Yumi toss their weapons, sending his shield and one of her fans at the sack creatures and destroying them both into a pile of parts.

With sparks of electricity jumping off of the top of his staff, Ed's smile grows widely as he takes his weapon and unleashes a powerful Thundara down on the small creature, ripping it apart with the lightning's intensity. Odd gets a lock-on in his sights and he jumps from the tree he is in, aiming an arm straight at the target and fires one arrow at the monster's symbol, hitting dead in the center and causing the block to destroy into tiny fragments. Finally, Double D and Ulrich break from their stand-off and charge right at the cubes, taking their weapons and piercing right in the middle of each to get sparks flying from the wounds and then destroying them into fragments.

With all of the monsters clear, the group turns their attention towards the girl before them, who was trying to get away from those monsters. She is the same age as them, though the Eds can get the feeling is much older than what she appears, and strangely she has pink hair. She is wearing a pink kimono similar to Ulrich's but smaller, a pink skirt, a green undershirt and pants, green arm warmers, straps on both of her legs, pink shoes, and a single earring on her left ear. Ed grins widely as he takes notice of the girl's pointy ears and the clothes she is wearing.

"She's an elf!" the tall Ed stated.

"No, I'm not an elf," the pink haired girl replied. "Thank you for helping me back there. So who are you three?"

"We are the Ed boys," Double D politely introduces. "My name is Eddward with two D's, but everyone calls me Double D, and these are my friends Ed and Eddy."

"Nice to meet you Double D," replied Aelita, and she introduces herself to the boys. "So you're the three that are going to help us escape this place?"

"Yes we are," Eddy responded. "But why are you stuck here? Can't anyone in this place give us a clear explanation?"

"Well, it has to do with X.A.N.A. and Father taking over Hollow Bastion and cutting off our access back to the real world," Aelita started. "Father discovered the lab that was in our factory some time ago through one of his sources and came to Hollow Bastion to begin his work."

"He used the place as a breeding ground for the Heartless, experimenting on ways to get the perfect Heartless to obey him and not go after his heart," added Ulrich. "What he didn't know was that X.A.N.A. was overlooking the project and decided to step in and add some of his effect into the mix."

"What we got are several Heartless that are capable of traveling to Lyoko and back," Odd added. "Those things are as bad as the monsters here, but the problem with those Heartless is that they keep coming back. They're like zombies!"

"Ed likes zombies," the tall Ed blurted.

"It wasn't long before X.A.N.A. triggered an activated tower and we went in to go deactivate it," Yumi said, continuing on. "What we didn't expect was it was a trap set up by X.A.N.A. to not only keep us here in Lyoko but throw Jérémie out of the world. We're not sure why X.A.N.A. did that, but he apparently wants Father to succeed in whatever he is planning."

"Maybe he is not focusing on Heartless. He might be focusing on the Pure Hearted," said the smart Ed. "He could be using the lab to hold those people, but what exactly remains to be answered."

"Maybe it has to do with Kingdom Hearts," said Eddy. "Didn't we hear him blabbing about needed the Pure Hearted to open a door?"

"Yes, you're right! If that is the case, maybe X.A.N.A. is seeking the same thing as Father is and wants to keep Kingdom Hearts for himself!"

The others are staring at the medium Ed in confusion after the boy had his eureka moment. Odd raises a hand and points at him as he opens his mouth to speak. "Do you mind running that by us again?" he asked. "We got lost when you started talking about some Kingdom Hearts."

"Well, it doesn't really matter to you," responded Double D. "It does matter to us since we were promised to find some missing people and Father is the person to seek out. If he has them, then we can go after him and get those people back."

"And you don't know where Hollow Bastion is," said Ulrich.

"True, but once we get back to Traverse Town, we're going to ask Dexter to install a map for us and we'll use that to find Hollow Bastion," replied Eddy, having a smug look on his face.

"But first we need to get out of here," said Yumi. "Aelita, you know where the tower is?"

The pink haired girl turns around and stands there for the moment, getting the feeling of pulsations running along the ground as she tracks down the tower they are seeking. Once she got what she needs, she turns back to face the group to give her answer. "It's just up the way. It's not that far off."

"Lead the way Princess," Odd called out.

With Aelita in the lead, the seven head off down the path taking them to the activated tower X.A.N.A. has triggered. In all hopes of getting out of this world and return to normal civilization, the Eds are ahead of the others with Double D taking the lead for the other two, with his Keyblade on his shoulder for just the moment he is going to need it. After some minutes, the tower they are seeking for comes into view, coming out from behind some trees, and the group lets out a cheer before toning it down to see what is circling around it.

The tower itself is a large cylinder, with it being a whitish-yellow and circuit lines tracing the edge. The top of it is floating slightly above and there is a red aura covering the top of the tower, giving the feeling of an ominous being is in control. The base is very strange as there is a collection of dark tentacles grouped together to cling onto the base of the tower. Along the tower, there are a few crabs walking about and two large metal balls waiting patiently, turning side to side as if they are checking for intruders. The group hangs back out of sight, preventing them from getting spotted by either the crabs or the spheres, and the Eds start whispering to the others about what they are going to do.

"Well first off, we need to get a passage open so that Aelita and the Keyblade can get to the tower," said Ulrich. "We can provide the distraction as you can cover Aelita and get to the tower safely."

"Okay, I can understand that," replied Double D, "but is there anything that I should look out for? For instances, those spheres over there; is there anything that we should be concern about?"

"Yeah: don't let one of them open unless you have good reflexes or can roll them off the edge," answered Odd. "They got powerful beams that will slice you if you're not careful."

"_And speaking of not being careful, you guys are not going to last that long_," replied Jérémie. "_You four are running low on health so if everything goes to plan, you'll be out in no time. Otherwise you'll be de-virtualized for good!_"

"That's never a good sign," said Eddy. "At least we'll be safe."

"Uh Eddy, we're in the same boat as they are," the smart Ed pointed out.

"Oh…"

"Well, let's not waste any time," said Yumi, taking out a fan and stepping up to face the enemy. "Hey ugly, over here!"

The crabs perk up and turn to where the warriors are hiding and they notice Aelita in the group, so the creatures charge forward with their lasers shooting wildly. Eddy and Yumi got to work using their weapons to block the lasers, giving Double D and Aelita their chance to go ahead and head for the tower. However, there are other crabs and the two metal spheres, and Ed and Ulrich heads in to deal with the other crabs to help buy some time. With his Keyblade ready, Double D use it to block some lasers heading towards them and Aelita provides some cover using her powers before a metal ball stops them in their tracks and opens up to reveal what is inside. Inside of the sphere appears to be a living creature with tenures stringing to the inside of the hemispheres, and the same symbol that has been on all of the other monsters is on a disk in the very middle of the sphere.

The disk begins to charge up for a laser and Aelita warns the smart Ed that the laser the sphere is charging is much different from the others, and the Ed got himself ready for the blow. The metal ball unleashes its laser, sending a vertical wall of energy at the boy and girl as Double D takes his Keyblade and blocks the incoming blow. With his feet digging into the ground, he uses all of his strength to prevent the wall from going any further, until he hears the sound of rolling coming from behind and hears the other sphere opening up.

"Don't worry about this one," said Aelita. "I got this cover."

The pink haired girl got down on her knees and places her hands down as she cocks her head back and begins to chant. The metal sphere begins to charge up for a laser wall to strike the duo, but before it can strike, a wall forms right in front of Aelita and the laser is fired, blasting itself straight into the wall and then cancelled thanks to the barrier. Aelita stops her chanting and got herself up to face the Ed, giving him a nod as he focuses back on the sphere he is fighting. Still struggling, he notices a spark on his Keyblade similar to when Prankster struck his weapon and he went flying in result, and the Ed prays that a similar result will happen.

Luckily the spark provides the Ed enough strength to step up and slice the laser wall back at the sphere, apparently sending it back with enough force to cause it to explode. With the obstacle clear, the two got their way up to the tower with nothing else in their way, which gives them the chance to get in and seal the deal. That is, if there was not another monster standing in the way. Aelita freaks out by the sudden appearance of this monster and Double D stops dead in his tracks upon seeing this strange sensation, as the creature slowly creeps up and begins reaching out to the two.

The creature in question is unlike the others the group has seen, with this being a jellyfish with a brain, a pointy face with the same symbol on it, a purple base for a body, and many clear tentacles coming from it. Both Double D and Aelita are terrified by this thing, seeing how its sudden appearance startled them and that its look is sending chills down their spines as the creature slowly approaches them and reaches out with its tentacles. Eddy notices the tentacle creature closing in on the two and he takes his shield to cut right through the tentacles and distract the monster.

"Hey you sick freak, keep it to the rating!" the small Ed barked. "We don't want those things doing anything to break the rating!"

"I must destroy the Jellyfish Overlord from Swamp Planet 18!" stated Ed boldly, acting heroic.

Both Eds charge ahead and challenge the jellyfish like monster to fight, all in hope of getting it away from the others. With tentacles growing back, Double D and Aelita slip away as Ulrich, Odd and Yumi join in on the fight. Ed starts off by using a Shadara on the creature, hoping that he can inflict the Darkness effect as Yumi takes her fans and cuts off more tentacles as the creature charges in rage. The fighters look over at the tower and they notice that both Double D and Aelita are safe at the base, meaning that they can go inside and finally get out of this place, but they shift back over to their fight to keep the distraction up.

Double D looks up at the tower and begins to wonder how he is going to get in as Aelita chimes in. "Your Keyblade should give you access to the tower," she said. "Why don't you push it in and see if it works?"

Blinking to that statement, Double D tries the idea and pushes his Keyblade in. Seeing that it is going through, he takes a few steps in and finds himself within a dream of his, being surrounded by rising numbers as he walks down to the center of the path. As he walks, rings that make up the monster's symbol light up as he got near the center, all as he steps directly in the middle and can feel the feeling of being lifted up. The Ed looks up as he rises up to another platform, as he slows down and takes a few steps onto this new platform.

As he walks up, a computer screen appears and a square box appears, appearing to be a place to place his hand. The boy takes his hand and places it in the center, giving it a moment to register before backing away and watching a cursor appear on the screen. Just as the cursor beeps, a word appears on screen, reading off "Code:" just as it enters itself and begins to type away at a five letter abbreviation.

CODE: **H.E.A.R.T.**

With the code entered, the numbers stop their movement and come to a standstill as Double D can feel the sensation of a keyhole right behind him. He turns around and notices the numbers forming the outer edge of the keyhole, and he preps his Keyblade ready to seal the lock. Once the beam enters and hearing the clicking the sound, the numbers begin to drop steadily before all of them drop into the darkness far below. The Ed lets out a breath of relief as he plops down onto the ground and releases his Keyblade.

"Tower… deactivated," he said before his body fades away.

OOO

The sock-wearing Ed boy's vision comes through as he stares out through a cloud of steam and notices that he is back in the real world. He places a hand on the edge of the doorway and he pulls himself out of the Virtualization Chamber as he notices his friends waiting patiently for him. Just as he got out, the doors close on him and he can hear them roaring with life as the doors open once again and the warriors step out to reveal their true forms. With each huffing away for breath, Ulrich, Yumi and Odd are much glad to be back on solid ground after spending so long in a virtual world.

"Man, does it feel good to be walking on real earth again," said Odd.

"It sure does," said Eddy.

"Now then, all I need to do is get Aelita out of there, and we are all…" said Jérémie as he eyes the monitor with a certain eye. "I don't get it. She was here just a moment ago. There's no way that she could have gone anywhere!"

"What? What happened to Aelita?" asked Ulrich as the others rush to the computer.

"Well I was going to transfer Aelita back to the real world, but somehow she disappeared from view! I know she was with you when I got you back here, but there's no way that she could've gone anywhere during that transfer!"

"Maybe the Skipazola must've gotten to her while we're heading back?" asked Odd.

"There was no way of that happening," replied Yumi. "We drove that thing off when Double D entered the tower. Even if the thing came back, there's no way of it caring off Aelita during that short time."

"Even so, I would have noticed it on my monitor," said Jérémie. "This is puzzling me as there is no other way of getting back to the real world than through the Virtualization Chambers back at the factory."

"If that was the possibility, then the only person who can do that is either Father or X.A.N.A," said Ulrich.

"Well, if there is one thing that we can do to help, it is that we can go out to Hollow Bastion and help rescue Aelita," said Double D. "We're going to be heading there anyway, since Father is there possibly holding the other Pure Hearted, so Aelita may be there."

Jérémie takes a look at the monitor screen, giving it one last good look to make sure that it is not fooling him, and he turns to face the Eds with a serious look on his face. "All right, I'm trusting you guys in getting her back," he replied.

Everybody begin to head for the door, leaving the computer room with everything on in case there is an emergency and Jérémie needs to have access to the computer. Once everyone is out of the room, the computer monitor begins to flick, losing the data that is on screen and shifting over to a red icon, similar in shape to the monsters in Lyoko. After a few flickers, the icon remains on the screen, burning into the monitor as other icons appear on the other monitors.

OOO

Off somewhere deep in space lies a building untouched by people for some time, leaving it abandoned for years and making it a hideout for Father. Deep within the corridors a lab sits with six tall tubes, all filled with preservative water and four of these tubes occupied as the man owning this vacant place stands before another capsule and waits for it to open. Standing by him is Mask, waiting with his arms behind his back as the doors open up and the body of Aelita drops to the ground unconscious and the teen walks up to retrieve it.

"Excellent," purrs Father. "This makes our sixth Pure Hearted. We're only one way before finally achieving our goal Mask."

"Yes Father… unlocking the Door to Hearts that will give us the passageway to Kingdom Hearts," replied the teen. "I just have to ask Father, when is it that I could have my love join me by my side once again?"

The shadow man lets out an irritated sigh and pinches his eyes as he turns to focus on the boy. "Look, I keep telling you that you can have her when we have all of the Pure Hearted," he answered. "I only need them so I can reveal the passageway to Kingdom Hearts and walk right up to it."

"I get that, but don't you think this is just leading up to having your plans overheard by something even stronger than you?"

"Look kid, I'm making sure that the Brats Next Door doesn't get involved in this scheme of mine," Father drones on, "and I'm pretty sure that no one else is getting in on this plan as long as I control this castle and the Heartless inside!"

"But sir, you do know that there is something stronger lurking in these shadows that is possibly overhearing every single—"

"I don't care about the details!" Father snapped. "I don't care that someone else is hearing my plans out loud! There isn't anyone in this place besides you, Zip-fly, me and the Pure Hearted! Now do me a favor and put this girl in her pod, or I'll cut our deal right here!"

With flames sprouting over his shadow body, Mask lets out a sigh and takes Aelita's body to prevent Father from getting any madder. Hearing him cutting his end of the deal strikes a nerve within him, meaning that if the plan goes through, he will not have any other way to seeing the girl he likes. Then again, this also means that the girl will be put away far deep inside of the castle, meaning Double D will also have problems seeing her again. With only the task in mind, the teen takes the unconscious girl and places her inside of the tube, closing it as he heads out of the room and finds Zip-fly waiting.

"What do you want?" Mask asked miserably.

"Sounds like Father is going to drop you like a hammer."

"Yeah, it's going to happen eventually. At least if we don't get to that last Pure Hearted before that happens."

"I say," replied the Nobody. "Already I lost my brother and an Unversed thanks to not meeting Father's expectations, and we're next on the chopping block."

"I guess that how things work," the teen sighs. "One day you are working for a guy willing to pay you anything that you want, but then turns his back on you and gives you nothing as you fend for yourself against the world."

"Yeah, but that is not going to happen to us," said Zip-fly. "As long as we get the last Pure Hearted, it just getting the Keyblade here and then…"

"Kingdom Hearts will be ours," Mask finished.

The two make their way towards Mask's ship as they walk through the halls of the castle, as Father continues to slave away at his work in the lab. He looks at a large heart before him and takes a girl sitting in front of it, placing her in the main tube as he seals the doors and begins working things out on the computers. Up in the far corner of the room, a blob-like shadow emerges and forms a face to look down at the man working away, laughing quietly to prevent getting noticed.

_So Father, you're only two steps away from completing our goals_, the blob said, letting out a snicker. _That's all fine by me… once I take over this place… and your mission!_

_

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_

Like I said, this came to me, and I wanted to throw this in. As for why I called it this... it's really more like for all of us to return to the show. The title has nothing to do with the Eds or anyone (besides the Lyoko Warriors) in this story.

So... in keeping with the theme of _Kingdom Hearts_, Lyoko represents the Hundred Acre Woods and the world of _Tron _combine together. It seems more like _Tron_ than _Winnie the Pooh, _but I don't care. I like to point out that this story isn't going to based on just the first game. But anyway... I like how this turned out.

So this is taking things back before the series ended, where Cartoon Network cut the final seven episodes from airing. If you hadn't seen the final episodes, I am not going to spoil what happened. I am trying to avoid that in this chapter, sticking to very much of what went on in the first and second seasons. And allow me to say this: Really Cartoon Network, did you really think that cutting off one of your best cartoons from airing its series finale is going to give you better ratings for some of your failures? Obviously... **NOT**! I like some of the shows to come out the 2000 decade, by the way, just not all of them.

And just to let you know... I am sticking with the French spelling of "Jeremy" and putting periods in "XANA." There is some talk on the Internet about this sort of thing, so I am just sticking with one thing and applying that. Still... it's _Code: Lyoko_ and it's all that matters.

So anyway, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next are two original worlds, and some insight into what's going on. (Wild mess guessing is involve)


	17. Act III, Ch 17: Platinum and United

OK first off, allow me to say that for the next two worlds (yes there are two worlds in this chapter) are not part of the first game, _BUT_ that doesn't mean that this story should remain in the first game. ... Technically the world I'm mentioning _was_ in the first game, but it wasn't a playable world. You'll understand what I mean once you get going reading this chapter.

So for these worlds, it's a collaboration with my friend Josh on this, as he is taking one world for himself and another for me. We designed these worlds and these two are very much original as they play a role in this story. Though I'll be talking about one world in particular in this chapter, both worlds are showcase in this chapter.

And let's begin!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

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Chapter Seventeen – Two Kingdoms without Their Kings

OOO

Once again Double D finds himself in the vast darkness, expecting to be sitting, lying or standing on top of water but instead is standing over another stained glass platform. He can see the pattern consists of him with his friends fighting a dark man similar to what he saw in Jump City. The fight is divided down the middle with the boy's Keyblade, and he can see light coming from his side and darkness coming from the other side. With the Keyblade in the way, the weapon is taking the light and darkness from both sides and absorbs it within the weapon. Double D begins to wonder what does this mean when he notices another person standing on the opposite side of him.

Instead of being someone he knows of, this boy standing far away appears to be new to the Ed. The smart Ed knows he seen this boy before but he is uncertain about that, even if it is himself. As he approaches the new boy, he notes that the boy is cover in shadows, has spiky hair, and is wearing a strange outfit. Now the Ed is certain he has not met this boy and whoever he is, this means either a positive or negative message. Double D tries to question the shadow boy, but there is no response from him, only standing there in complete silence.

_Excuse me, but I asked you a question. Aren't you going to speak?_

The shadow boy remains to be quiet, standing there in total silence as the boy stretches out his arm to the side and summons a Keyblade. The weapon is also cover in shadows but Double D recognizes the Keyblade to his first one, Kingdom Key. Double D can feel that this person is not from this universe and that he poses a threat to the Ed, so the Ed takes out his Keyblade for the fight. The two got into their fighting stance, with the shadow boy using both hands on his Keyblade and the Ed with one hand on the grip, as they circle around waiting for one to make a move.

Double D got a Light spell going on Joker's Wild and he aims his weapon at the newcomer, only for the boy to disappear into thin air and reappear right behind Double D. With Light still active, the two blades made contact and sparks fly as the magic disperses and the two skid away from each other. The shadow boy charges again and the Ed raises his Keyblade in defense, blocking each blow before the attacker stops his blows. With an open window, Double D got his chance to strike with his own attacks, but the shadow boy proves to be at the same skill level as him, maybe stronger.

The Ed tries to use another magic spell, this time going with Fire and he launches it, but the shadow boy jumps out and shoots down a Blizzard at him. The spell is a visible snowflake and the Ed takes his Keyblade to deflect it, but the ice magic causes his blade to freeze up and have ice covering the shaft. Now open, the shadow boy closes in and begins to strike, but Double D dodges each blow simply by moving his whole body. Trying to get the ice off of his Keyblade, the Ed occasionally raises his Keyblade up to deflect some blows, but the ice proves to be thicker than he imagines.

Double D takes his heavy weapons and swings it at the shadow boy, giving them distance as the Ed prepares for a Fire spell. When the shadow notices him doing this, he aims his Keyblade right at the Ed and fires his own Fire spell, and Double D rolls out of the way to prevent the scorching fireball from burning him. Once he selects his target, Double D got the ice melted off of his Keyblade and he can use it once again. The Ed charges up and presents his attack, with the shadow boy countering every blow sent at him.

And then the two fighters make the same move and both Keyblades strike down hard as the two get into a test of power. Despite Double D being weaker than the shadow boy, he is proving his strength in this challenge, using every ounce that he has in his body to push against his opponent. Both sides went any farther from a few inches and they kept their position for a few minutes, emitting the same amount of force to keep them in the stalemate. Just as they went for another minute, a strong force rips them away from each other and both boys skid across the stained-glass battlefield. The two look up at each other and gives each other a stare down before Double D begins to speak.

_Please, all I need to know is who you are and why you are here. Are you here to help me learn any new techniques, or are you here to warn me about a future event or someone near to me?_

The shadow boy continues to stare into space, emitting not a single sound from his mouth as he takes a few steps forward. With the Keyblade still in his hand, Double D can tell that this boy is here to kill him, since he has gotten this far in his journey, but his mind is wondering who is this boy and why does he feel familiar. In front of him, the Ed quickly reacts to the shadow's attack and uses a Light spell to cast him away, giving them some distance as Double D recovers from that and continues on with the fighting. Both continue to trade blows until one small move from the shadow boy knocks Double D across the field.

The Ed rockets across the stained-glass platform, heading straight towards the edge before he catches himself and stops just in time before going over the edge. He rushes back towards the shadow boy, who is charging right towards him, and Double D got Haste going in order to speed him up and get himself ready to do Rush Arcane. Once disappearing, the shadow boy stops in his tracks and looks around to see where Double D is going to strike, only to feel five sharp blows with the final sending him up into the air and finally noticing the Ed hovering right above him. The smart Ed knocks his Keyblade down into the shadow's stomach, sending him hurling back down to the platform and cause some cracks to appear.

As Double D got back onto the platform, a Thunder spell appears from the crash site, zapping the Ed and shocking him with the powerful spell. The shadow boy rises up from his crash and brushes himself off, giving himself into his fighting stance as Double D got down on his knees and looks at his opponent weakly. He knows that this is the finishing blow, but he catches a glimpse of the shadow heading right towards him and a bright ball of light appearing right in-between them. The ball morphs into a human shape with its arms sticking out and looking like a girl, as the light booms out a command to the attacking shadow.

"If you touch him again, I'll use that thing of yours and I'll beat you on the head!"

The shadow boy steps back from this new presence, in both discouragement and in fear. Now with another person on the stained-glass platform and defending Double D, the shadow recalls his Keyblade and steps into the darkness. Once the shadow boy disappears completely, Double D looks in front of him to notice the girl he is seeking for standing in right in front of him, now noticing some changes to her usual style. He tries to speak her name, but nothing is coming out, and the girl turns around to notice him trying to speak her name.

"It's all right Double D. You don't need to worry about it."

_But… is this really you? Are you for real and not a figment of imagination?_

The Ed reaches out and touches a lock of the girl's hair, giving it a feel before retracting his hand, now knowing that this girl is real. But is she really here or is his mind playing games on him?

"Why are you concern about that? Aren't you glad to be seeing me?"

_But… I'm concern about your safety! Where are you?_

"I… I don't know where I am. It's dark and cold, as if I'm in a metal tube or something. I'm not sure where I am, but I think you may know where it is."

_I'm trying my best at finding you, but we're doing the best we can to get to you and we found some of the others on our journey._

"Well, at least you are looking for me. At least I have a knight in shiny armor coming to save me from wherever I am."

_Don't worry. I'll be there to get you out. We'll come and save not only you, but the others as well._

The girl lets out a smile as a column of light appears beside the Ed. The light forms into a door and the Ed focuses his attention towards it, only to look back and offer his hand to the girl. She rejects his offer, telling him that he should go on his own, and the Ed looks back at the door knowing that this will lead him out of his Awakening. He can feel deep inside that he has gotten stronger out of this experience and finally recognizes the ability that his Keyblade does when it strikes at the right moment, and the Ed walks up to the door to head back into the real world and rejoin with his friends.

OOO

"Eddy, we shouldn't wake him up," said Ed.

"Why shouldn't I? I really want to see if waking him up will do anything other than wake him up," the small Ed replied.

"Didn't I tell you already not to wake a person from his Awakening," groans Normadomus. "The boy needs to go through it in order to unlock his potentials, and here you are trying to prevent him from learning everything he needs to know!"

"So? I just want to see if anything bad happens to him if I do…" the greedy Ed stops his sentence as he can hear Double D stirring from his slumber. "OK, I guess it does nothing."

The sleeping Ed blinks his eyes and looks up into space to see only the blackness and empty that makes up the environment, and he turns to his friends to ask if anything major happened while he was out. Eddy replies that nothing did happen, saying that their trip from Traverse Town to the deeper part of the universe has been quiet for most of the time. With this relief, Double D resumes his role as the pilot of the ship and got it on course for the next world.

"You know, ever since we got to this mess, we were left with questions unanswered and new questions that we still don't know the answer to," said Eddy. "I can get a few things, but why is this happening to us and why does Double D has the Keyblade when he doesn't have a pure heart?"

"Again, I told you that the Keyblade does not need a pure heart for the wielder to use it," said Ed's hat. "I know that Keyblades need light in order to form, even if darkness takes up the majority, but if not all, of the heart."

"So are there Keyblades made of darkness?" asked Ed.

"Possibly, but I never seen one before. If I did, I'll be scare senseless over what kind of power those things have."

"And what kind of person wielding it," said Double D.

"True."

"Still, we need to connect some dots here," Eddy stated. "We can't just keep flying on without having some questions answered and having all of us confused about what is going on."

"OK, so far we know that Father is planning to capture all of the Pure Hearted so that he can go to Kingdom Hearts and collects the hearts needed for his plan," said Double D. "So far he has most, if not all, of the Pure Hearted, and is now waiting to get his hands on my Keyblade."

"If Zip-fly said that they need the Keyblade, then that means they are trying to locate where Kingdom Hearts is," said Ed's hat. "If the Nobody does make it to Kingdom Hearts with Father, then that means Zip-fly is capable of getting a strong heart and coming back far stronger than he was before."

"But what about that masked guy?" asked Eddy. "He must have a part in all of this."

"He's apparently looking for a girl…" the smart Ed responded, looking out into space. "He told me that I failed to protect her back home and it's my fault in losing her in this universe…"

"Why are you getting depressed about? We got this far and found most of the others," said Eddy, looking at the positive. "All we're missing is four more people and then we can focus on getting a way home."

"But Eddy, our home was consumed by the darkness!" Ed pointed out. "There's not a single force in this universe that can bring our home back!"

"But isn't there some way to get it back? I know there have been some strange things, but at least one of those strange things can happen to us and help get our world back."

"Eddy, there's no way that we can get back our home," said Double D. "Even if we did, we're going to need a lot of power and find where did our world went off to. Besides, I got something that has been concerning me for some time."

"What's that?" asked Eddy.

"Well… it has to do with someone that I met in my Awakenings. He appears to be similar to Father but has that purple outline," the medium Ed explained. "I finally got the chance to know what he is called, and he said he is named the Destroyer of Light. I believe that whoever this Destroyer of Light is must be following us around and toying with my mind."

"So, you're also saying that the Destroyer of Light was the one who made me like this," said Normadomus. "Well at least we know who he is. Maybe when we get to the next world, we can ask some of the people if they know anything about the Destroyer."

With the word "world" mention, the radar begins to beep, telling the boys that two worlds are coming into view. The Eds look out to notice that the worlds before them are part in a binary system, with one with a digital and clean look and the other appearing bright and bustling with life. The two worlds consist of mainly a castle for each world, with both looking unique to each other and having no qualities matching to the town surrounding the castle. Normadomus directs Double D to head to the white castle with a tall, steampunk-like tower, mentioning that this is the Platinum Kingdom and the Ed got them ready for entry.

Just as the boys are entering, they notice a Gummi ship heading out from the atmosphere and heading over to the digital kingdom, in which is the United Kingdom. They spot a coats-of-arm on the ship, marking it as a royal ship and telling them that someone from the United Kingdom was paying visit to the royals in the Platinum Kingdom. With both kings missing, it seems as if that was the queen's vessel and she was talking to the queen here to keep peace between the kingdoms.

The Midnight Hummer soars across the skies, with Double D looking down at the lavish landscape for a place to land. When he notices a village with the castle in view, he pilots the ship close to the ground and got the landing gear out so he can park their ship close to the entrance of the town. Once on the ground, the door opens up and the Eds head out into the open, only to be greeted with assault rifles in their faces and robots dressed in military uniform surrounding their ship. The three Eds got their heads up into the air as some of the robots open a passageway and a captain ranked robot strolls up to talk to the Ed boys.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the robot asked. "A couple of boys sent by Father to destroy our army, or some Heartless in disguise?"

"Uh, we're not any of those," replied Double D. "We're actually here to talk to your officials about some important business relating to the Pure Hearted…"

"So you are working for Father, are you?" the captain barked, with several of the soldiers getting their guns loaded. "Well misters, we don't treat kindly to your kind and we are specifically ordered to shoot any spies from Father and Heartless on the spot!"

"Isn't that a bit extreme?" asked Eddy. "Aren't you at least going to give us a fair trial or something?"

"Not in these times, bucko. As long as I'm in charge of the Robotic Army Reinforcement Unit for this sector, I'm not going to let my eye pry away from some scheming con-artists."

"But he has the Keyblade!" stated Ed, pointing over to Double D.

When this got to the soldiers' ears, they lower their guns and back away from the ship, allowing the Eds some breathing room as the captain takes a good look at the boys. "Wait… you three are the Ed boys we've been hearing about?" he asked. "My apologies for the mistake! We would have never suspect to be seeing you three anytime soon, and we haven't got word on what you look like…"

"So you presume us to be Heartless and spies?" questioned the smart Ed, raising an eyebrow.

"Look, we're sorry about the confusion, and we'll direct you to the castle," the captain replied. "AR-065!"

A robot with the name tag as the captain barked appears right behind his leader, and the captain orders the said robot to head towards the castle and tell everyone that the Ed boys are here. Once the soldier heads off towards the gate and disappears, the robot army backs away some more and lines up as the Eds heads away from the ship and heads inside of the village as they watch the captain give out orders to his subordinates. As the Eds pass through the gates, they can see that the village appears to be more of a city due to several people roaming around and the building appearing much bigger up close.

The Eds walk around the city-like town, looking at the several residents that make up this single residential location. Among them is a group of teens from different parts of town and dressed strangely, a young teen playing with a hedgehog, two odd looking boys that appear to come from a traveling street-performing troupe, two poacher brothers talking about stealing the hedgehog the boys saw earlier, and a teen dressed in western wear playing an acoustic guitar. Double D offers some Munny to the teen, placing it within the boy's hat, and a white dog lets out a bark in response for the payment.

As the Eds got closer to the castle, they begin to travel down the business section of the city, now noticing several different vendors offering a variety of products. There is one man selling weapons proclaiming that he has a real Keyblade but the Eds can tell that the weapons is forgery and continue on with their walking. They notice another teen boy sitting with his grandfather, offering up some accessories for a game that is common on this world, and there are children lining up to get some of these products. There is even a clinic with a scientist and a doctor working on one patient through the see-through window, and the boys notice something odd about the man they are working on, all before the man looking up and growling at them.

With the sight of a humanoid cat man growling them in their heads, the Ed boys try to shake it off when they hear the sound of crashing nearby. The three look to see five boys working on some type of experiment, only for it to go awry and exploding in front of them. The Eds continue on with their journey, only to finally reach the gates of the castle, and they look up to notice the Platinum Kingdom's coats-of-arm hanging right above the archway.

"You know, I don't think I ever seen these people before," said Eddy.

"Maybe that's because we hardly get out of the cul-de-sac that often to know all of these people," replied Double D.

"That, or they don't exist to us," Ed added, applying his typical randomness into the equation.

The boys head inside of the gate, walking over the drop-gate as they pass under the arch and take a look inside of the castle. Inside, there are hundreds of robots roaming around the castle, with all of them appearing in different forms and sizes, and the tall Ed beams in joy upon seeing so many robots at once all in real-life. The two Eds try to calm him down as one robot approaches them and begins asking questions to them.

"Excuse me, but aren't you three the Eds?" he asked.

"Yes we are," replied Double D. "I'm Double D, the Keyblade wielder, and we've came here in search of answers to our quest."

"Well you came to the right place," the robot replied, revealing its name to be D-002 from what it says on its exterior. "Lying deep within these halls should give you the answers you are seeking for, and I know the perfect ladies to do the job. Just head up down that hallway, take a left at the second intersection, and in no time, you should run into them."

"What do they look like?" asked Eddy, sounding a bit suggestive.

"They are ladies of the court and there are three of them, so if you see three ladies grouped together and two of them are bickering," said D-002, "that's them."

With that knowledge, the Ed boys head off down the hallway the robot instructed them to. Once down the hallway, they pass by several robots, all with different looks and names on them, and they can see that a few of them do not have a name on them. The smart Ed figures that these robots are specialty robots fitted for special tasks, and Ed begins to ramble about how he can use an army of robots to conquer some worlds and then goes off tangent into his silly world. Occasionally passing them are some robots dressed in military uniform, with all of them wielding the same rifle, and the boys gulp at the sight of them as they take the turn and walk down the hallway to notice three beings heading right towards them.

Approaching the Eds are three well attracted ladies of the court. One of them is a blonde with her hair flowing behind her white silk top. She is wearing a flowing top that covers all of her arms excluding her hands but exposes a triangle on her that goes to her bosom. The top goes down to a flowing black velvet skirt that touches her ankles, with an elegant dark floral pattern on the skirt. This woman is wearing a pair of black heels that rise up two inches off the ground, and the Eds could see that she is wearing a pair of gold bands on her sleeves, evening out on both sides. And she is looking at the Eds with a pair of shiny blue eyes, red lipstick and no other make-up on her face.

The woman to her left is slightly shorter than the blonde, due to being younger than her. She has black hair on her head, which is tie up in a large ponytail and going behind an all black outfit. The clothing this woman is wearing is very Gothic as she is wearing a fancy black halter with her shoulders expose and black sleeves covering her arms, a black skirt that goes to her knees and a pair of fishnet stockings. And to add, this woman is wearing a pair of black boots with purple straps and bronze belt buckles. For her face, she is wearing black eyeliner and black lipstick, and her eyes are glistening emerald green.

And the last of the ladies is the same sizes as the blonde lady, due to her wearing a pair of dark purple heels. This woman in particular has brown hair, which is neatly comb and got a black hair band in to keep her hair back. She is wearing very formal clothing, far different from the other ladies, as this one consists of an elegant purple kimono with a glittery floral pattern, a pair of brown underpants that stretch down to cover her knees, and a pair of bleach white socks under her heels. She dons several different layers of accessories, ranging from jewelry on her neck, fingers and wrists, to a few belts and a sash over her waist, and a pair of black rim glasses on top of her sharp nose. And for her facial features include a professionally done make-over of blush, eye liner, lipstick, and other varieties with her luscious brown eyes.

The three ladies of the court stop a few feet away from the Eds, as each one of them are sweating from seeing each one of the attractive ladies. The Eds are lost on words, each one spilling out words that none of the ladies could understand, until the blonde steps up to introduce themselves.

"Greetings Ed boys," the blonde lady said, bowing to the boys. "My name is Lady Tina Norté, the eldest of the three Ladies."

The girl in black gives a bow to the Eds before raising her head back up. "My name is Lady Sue Grant, the middle child," she said.

"And I'm Lady Jean Fortune, the youngest of the set," the brunette said, giving the boys a wave.

The Eds look in confusion. "Uh... what do you mean by what you just said?" asked Double D.

"Oh, we're sisters," the Goth Lady Sue replied.

"Sisters?" echoed Eddy. "That's odd for girls with last names to be sisters."

"Oh our last names are our middle names," the blonde Lady Tina responded, letting out a small laugh. "We have an embarrassing last name, so we use our middle names in our titles."

"It's confusing, but it works for us and for our king," the brunette Lady Jean stated. "So what brings you boys to our kingdom? If you're looking for our king, he's not here."

"We're not here to see the king," Double D answered. "In fact, we would like to know more about the king and his friend."

"You mean the King of the United Kingdom?" Lady Sue questioned. "Yes, please follow us to the throne room."

The three sisters begin to walk away from the Eds and the Eds begin to follow, with Eddy leaning in to whisper into Double D's ear. "At least these three beat the Kankers any day," he said.

The six of them walk down an open corridor, with the Eds looking out into the courtyard to find several robots dress in military uniform training on the grounds to prepare for any attacks on the castle and a few robots carrying around filming equipment with one barking orders to the ones falling behind. As the six are walking, they pass several robots that look very different from the ones the Eds had seen coming onto the kingdom's grounds, with a few that have black pipes running down different parts of the body, a square-looking robot playing some techno music and two suspicious robot whispering to each other before one falls back and crashes through the wall.

"So what's up with all the robots here?" asked Eddy.

"These robots are our Majesty's creation," Lady Tina said. "They're all made here, in the basement of this very castle, and several more are being made as we speak."

"You think I can run this kingdom?" asked Ed.

"Sorry, but we can't have you running our kingdom," Lady Jean responded. "Though we don't have a king in charge, we can't just have someone like you running the place if he returns."

"And besides Ed, who's going to be there if we get stuck in some sort of jam?" Eddy said, wrapping an arm around the tall Ed's head.

"I could send my hat to replace me," Ed responded, pointing to Normadomus.

The wizard hat wakes up from its slumber and unzips its mouth. "Whoa buddy, there's no way that I'm going without you," he said. "I like your comfy head, and I'll probably knock your friends out with your stink."

The sisters laugh at the Eds' expense as the group eventually walks up to a pair of tall wood doors. Standing outside of the doors is another robot, only this one is very different compare to the others the Ed had seen. This robot is wearing a formal suit consisting of a long fancy blue jacket with a pattern similar to what is on Lady Tina's skirt, all over a purple undershirt. The pants are a brown suit pants, with a pair of black formal shoes for footwear. The robot owns a head of blonde hair, despite going with his gray robotic skin, and he is looking beyond the group with his blue eyes. This robot is pacing back and forth in front of the doors and when his back is against the group, they could see the name "I-095" printed in gold letters.

"How's the Princess been holding?" asked Lady Sue.

The robot stops his pacing to face the ladies. "She's been fine," he answered. "She's still worrying about the King, but she's doing all right." The robot looks over the sisters' shoulders to look at the Eds. "Uh, just who are these three?"

"Right. These are the Eds, with the middle one being Double D, the wielder of the Keyblade," said Lady Tina.

The robot looks at the boys with a surprise look. "Well excuse me! How could I mistaken them for someone else?" the robot hesitated. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am an Imperial Bot, number Zero Nine Five, but everyone calls me I-095."

"So I can see," Eddy said, trying to peek behind the robot to get a look at his name.

"I am the head robot out of everyone in this kingdom and every robot follows my orders when not being ordered by the King," I-095 said. "Not only that, I am the only one of my kind, an Imperial, and I serve as the King's right hand robot."

"The only one?" questioned Double D. "Then why aren't you numbered one?"

"It's a long story," the robot replied, letting out a small laugh. "Anyway, would you care to take a look at the history of this kingdom and the universe?"

"Isn't that the reason why we're here?" asked Lady Jean, sounding serious.

"Oh right." I-095 walks up to the doors and give them a good push, using his inhuman strength to open the doors and allowing all seven of them to walk inside. As the group walks in, the doors begin to shut and they continue to walk on, with the Eds staring up at the large paintings that are hanging on the walls.

"Now what you have here is the history to how the universe got to be what it is today and the start of the kingdoms of Platinum and United," said I-095. "Ladies, would you mind?"

"Certainly," answered Lady Tina. "Now as you can see, the universe is a very peaceful place in the beginning. There wasn't very much, only for a few worlds grouped together next to a pillar of light, and each one were under very different controls at that time. That was until the introduction of the Unversed in the universe."

The group moves over to a painting with several creatures that look like blue flames attacking a stone village. "Now, people during this time are growing very unstable with each other, which led to their negativity towards each other growing into an all-mighty Unversed," Lady Tina continues. "This all-mighty creation that is known as the Unversed gave rise to several smaller Unversed, which wrecked havoc across the worlds and killing off the people that made the first Unversed. That led to the birth of the Heartless and the Nobodies being in the universe."

"As time progress, a group of people came along and began driving away the Unversed from the universe," Lady Sue said, continuing on for her sister as the group moves to a painting feature a large group of people, with one looking like a superhero and a typical man wearing glasses, and all of these people are wielding different Keyblades. "The superhero was a remarkable hero, but he didn't prove himself as great as the man with the robot Keyblade. He and several other Keyblade Masters took on the Unversed that was threatening the remaining worlds, banishing all but one Unversed from the universe and clearing things way for a better future.

"Now, you may be curious as to who is the one that created all the Unversed in the first place?"

"Not really," Eddy replied.

"I'm curious," Double D responded.

"Gravy," Ed answered.

The ladies lead the Eds to the next painting, which features a shadowy person with a purple outline glowing around him, and below him are the symbols for the Unversed, Heartless and Nobodies. "Here's where the Unversed came from," said Lady Sue. "It was Jib, the Destroyer of Light that created the Unversed and started causing mayhem all over the universe. Along with his true master, the one with all the source of Jib's power..."

"Wait a minute... Jib? You mean Ed's imaginary friend Jib?" Eddy asked. The sisters and I-095 look confused at the Eds, not knowing of the Eds' past with Jib.

"Ed? Is there something that you like to talk about?" Double D asked.

The tall Ed looks over to his friend, with both of them shooting him a curious, worry and angry face all at one. He struggles to come up with the words to his say and then he lets out a sigh. "You know when you were working on that giant claw grabbing scam and how I met Jib then?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I remember how Jib said it was a scam and scared away potential customers," Eddy said angrily.

"Well you see, I met Jib a few weeks before that one scam and he didn't seem so bad at first," Ed continues. "He just wanted to be friends so I took him in."

"You met Jib the Destroyer?" Lady Jean asked. "What did he look like?"

Ed shrugs. "We don't know what he looked like," Double D answered. "He was invisible when we first met him."

"Oh. Well that's a poopy," Lady Jean said, thrusting her hips to the side. "Anyway, Jib here was loaded with so much negativity that gave birth to so many Unversed, that it took some time for the heroes to vanquish all of the Unversed. But Jib wasn't about to go down without a fight."

"But that wasn't all," said I-095. "Jib the Destroyer created three specific beings to help him during his reign of evil. Those three are the Unversed Blitzer, the Heartless Prankster, and the Nobody Zip-fly."

The group moves on to the next painting, which features a collection of eight separate panels, and the Eds look wide-eye at one of them. "Now from this, we get what we call the Original Eight, where they house some of the earliest Keyblade wielders, and the start of the modern universe," Lady Jean said, continuing the story. "The man with the robot Keyblade helped gave birth to these worlds, which were created by the eight original Keyblade Masters, and that led the Heartless to take over these worlds due to the large number in the universe at that time, and I could see that your world is destroyed by the Heartless."

"Yes," the Eds replied.

The ladies return a nod and they face the painting once again. "From these worlds, Jib walked about searching for the one thing that will give him ultimate power," said Lady Tina, with her sentence trailing off.

The group walks up to another painting, which features only a large set of doors with a giant white heart on them, and underneath is a large bluish glowing heart. "This. This is what Jib is after," said Lady Sue. "It is these doors that Jib is seeking, and what lies behind it is something that is beyond imagination."

"What is it?" Ed asked.

"Kingdom Hearts, the haven of all the hearts," I-095 answered. "It is said that Kingdom Hearts links all the universes together with the hearts stored inside, collected over time as people passed on. We are not sure what really lies behind the doors, but it said that behind the doors lies all the hearts in known existences and possible links to other universes."

"So what you're saying that Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all the universes?" Double D asked, surprised by the information.

The ladies and I-095 return a nod. "But it has not been proven yet," I-095 replied. "It is believed, but no one knows the true location of Kingdom Hearts, so this remains a mystery."

"But why does Jib want Kingdom Hearts?" Ed asked.

"He wants to control the power of the hearts inside Kingdom Hearts," Lady Tina said. "Those hearts belonged to some of the most powerful people throughout time, and if Jib were to control all of that..."

"It could spell disaster for all," Lady Jean finished.

The Eds gulp upon hearing the last sentence. "But he needs to get the keys to unlock the doors, but that's never going to happen. All right, moving along now," said Lady Sue. "As time progress, more worlds appeared in the universe, with several of these being very popular among others and some that were favorites to the Heartless. These worlds eventually gain rise to their own Keybladers, with only a few to be selected to join forces and make a union of these worlds."

The next painting features the two worlds that make up the Platinum and United Kingdoms. "So what you can see, a few Keybladers gathered together, forming an alliance that eventually got the Platinum and United Kingdoms started and everything from there," Lady Sue said, feeding in more information. "But with Jib looking for the keys to get to Kingdom Hearts, he turned to work with evils on different worlds and then creating a destructive force that eventually led to major conflicts."

On the same painting, the Eds could see the shadowy Jib reaching up with the figures of Mojo Jojo, Him, Vilgax, and two men the Eds have yet to meet, but they figure that of them must be Father. They can see that Jib is releasing a strange form of magic up to the castles, with what appears to be a human being with different animals following behind.

"It is with this led to a large conflict between our worlds and then breaking the worlds away from each other," said Lady Jean, leading the group to another painting, featuring a war-torn universe of people fighting and Heartless everywhere. "This dark force was the main reason for the downfall of the universe, along with the Heartless and Nobodies. Wars torn the worlds, including ours, and our previous kings threaten to destroy each others' worlds if we didn't surrender. But there is hope for all of us."

The group finally reaches the final painting resting over two thrones, which is featuring two boys the same age clasping hands together with Keyblades in their own hands. "These two are the current kings of the Platinum and United Kingdom," I-095 said. "The one on the left is our King and the one on the right is the king of United. The two of them are the best of friends, and they put an end to what is known as the Seeing Real Epidemic that tore the universe and our kingdoms apart. With some help from people of the past and a few new worlds, our kings dealt with the evil forces and driven them out from this universe."

"But that didn't stop Jib the Destroyer from getting his hands on my dear's Keyblade," said one voice.

The group turns around to find another person standing in the room, this being a girl a few years older than the Eds. She is wearing a princess like outfit, consisting of a full fluffy dress with different colors all over her dress, a pair of white gloves going up to her sleeves, and a pair of white shoes. She is wearing jewelry similar to Lady Jean's but more fitting for a princess, with a shiny tiara sitting on top of her short, dark red hair. She is looking at the painting of the kings with a sad look, as the Eds could see her staring at the boy king on the left.

"Jib the Destroyer is looking for a Keyblader that can locate Kingdom Hearts and unlock the doors so he can enter and take all that power for himself," the girl said, moving closer to get a better look at the painting. "It is sad to see the King leave and hide himself from Jib."

"Princess Kendall, there's nothing to fear," I-095 stated, walking up to the said princess. "I'm sure that the King is all right and he's safe."

"But what about the king of the United Kingdom?" asked Double D.

"Well, knowing his history, he should be safe," I-095 answered. "The two of them are very skilled so they can outsmart Jib if needed."

"That's our kings for you," Lady Jean said. "Though... I don't understand how these two could be kings of these kingdoms when they're still in school?"

"You may be surprised," Double D said.

The Eds look up at the painting of the two kings, taking a long at each one of them to get a better picture of the two boy kings. The one on the left is a typical boy wearing just a red shirt and black pants, with a pair of black slip-ons, but what makes him different from being normal is that he is wearing a single black glove on his left hand, a strange yin yang watch on his right wrist, a leather strap going over his chest with a circle of spikes going around his back, and a pair of steam-punk style goggles on his forehead. The boy on the right is wearing a dark gray vest, a maroon shirt, brown pants, two straps going over his chest, some armor on his sleeves, a gray glove on his right arm, and a pair of brown boots.

"So these are really the kings?" Eddy asked.

"Mmm-hmm," Lady Sue replied. "They are known by their titles of the Boy of the Thousand Weapons and the Headmaster of the Robot Alliance, with the Headmaster being on our side."

"Headmaster? What kind of title is that if he's a king?" Eddy pitched.

"He was previously called the Headmaster before he became king," I-095 stated. "I still call him that occasionally, but he doesn't seem to mind."

"Shh, you hear that?" shushed Ed. He places a hand to an ear to listen to a faint noise.

Everyone falls silent as they try to listen to the noise Ed is hearing. They could hear some sort of shouting and yelling, with a few occasional banging from above. Then a loud bang erupts into the room and everyone looks up to see a small figure falling towards them. The group splits up to allow the figure to land face first on the ground, creating a small crater in its shape and several cracks in the floor.

The dust clears and the figure picks itself up from the crater, revealing itself to be a bear wearing normal human clothing. The bear shakes off excess dirt and snaps himself back to reality and he walks up to Princess Kendall to climb up her body to get to the shoulder.

"How's it going peeps?" the bear asked.

"So Gametoe, how was your fall?" asked Lady Jean.

The bear stretches out his shoulders and cracks his neck before opening his mouth. "Well, to say the least, it hurts like crazy," he answered. "But on important matter, it appears that the United forces are assembling some of their strong men for a fight."

"Should we send in our troops?" asked I-095.

"It doesn't look like they're ready to make a move just yet," Gametoe answered. "They're still strategizing plans, but nothing to be too alarm about. I think they may be getting ready to fight the Heartless, but who knows what's going to happen next."

"All right, but it is still best that we have our troops ready for another assault at all times," I-095 said. "I better go check and see how much progress we made."

"And we need to go see on how well the others are doing," said Lady Tina, making her way to the doors. "Sue, Jean, are you two coming?"

"Right behind you, sis!" Lady Jean called out, running towards her sister. "Come on slowpoke, we don't have all day!"

"Hey, don't call me a slowpoke!" Lady Sue shouted, chasing her sisters down the hallway.

The Eds watch the robot and the sisters run down the hallway, and the bear got off of Princess Kendall's shoulder to make his way towards the door. "Well, I better get going to," he said. "Hey guys, if you stick around for a bit, I'll get you front row seats for some of Jean and Sue's cat-fights. Believe me on this; they are some good fights."

Gametoe gives the Eds a friendly wave as the bear makes his way towards the door, leaving the boys alone with the princess. Double D looks at the princess with a worry look, as Princess Kendall is staring at the painting of the kings. The other two Eds start to head for the exit, but they turn around to see Double D is still with the princess.

"Hey Sock-head, let's get a move on!" shouted Eddy.

"In a minute Eddy," Double D replied. He then faces Princess Kendall. "So is there anything that we can help in?"

The princess removes her face from the painting to face the medium Ed. "Oh... no, there isn't," she replied. "We don't want you to get involve in our affairs. It is best that we settle this fight until our kings return."

"So tell me... what is your relationship with your King?"

Princess Kendall blushes upon this question. "Well... at first we never knew each other so well, until he started gaining power. After some time becoming king, he was searching for a queen, so he asked me if I wanted to be a princess and if I could accept him for marriage. So I did, and here I am."

"You mean you are going to marry the King?" Double D asked.

"Well, not yet. If he returns... that is, if he returns... he vowed to marry me once Jib is gone," Princess Kendall responded.

The smart Ed looks up at the painting to look at the king of the Platinum Kingdom. He could see how this person means so much to the princess, and the Ed takes the princess' hands and places them in his. "I'm promise you this: we will find Jib and defeat him, and we will bring back the kings," he said. "Is that all right?"

The princess looks at Double D with wide eyes and she begins to tear up. She wraps her arms around the Ed, clutching out as she begins to cry over the promise. "Oh thank you, thank you," she bawled. "If anything to get back my future husband, you should do it."

Double D is confused on what to do next, so he takes his open arms and gently pats Princess Kendall on the back. The princess quits her crying and leans back from Double D, giving the Ed some breathing room as the princess wipes away her tears. As soon as she is dry, she reaches into one of her pockets and hands Double D a summoning charm. In the beige charm is a purple staff sitting inside of a gray stone.

"You can use that when needed," Princess Kendall said. "I have no use for it, and I was hoping to give it to the King for a wedding gift, but I think you have better uses for it."

Double D holds the charm up to his face to study what it summons and he gives the princess a firm nod. He turns away and gives the princess a friendly goodbye wave as he makes his way back up to his friends, all while putting the charm into a pocket.

"What did she give you?" Ed asked.

"Another one of those summoning charms," the smart Ed replied, feeling the charm in his pocket. "I am not certain on what this summons, but I hope it can be useful in our future."

"And what is up with her back there?" Eddy asked. "She seem so sad and then grabbing you like you were hers?"

"She's sad because of the King, Eddy," Double D responded. "She's been waiting for him to marry her, the wait is possibly keeping her away from her future husband."

"Wait a minute... her marrying him? Now there's something wrong with that."

"Kid, you're dealing with forces that only the person writing this can control," Normadomus said, leaning towards the small Ed. "He can write whatever he please, even make a relationship with a person he loves."

"Cut it with the fourth wall crap," Eddy said, grabbing Ed's hat by the mouth. "It's bad enough hearing from Double D about this, it is worse when you put your words into it."

"But Eddy, we didn't get to know more about Zip-fly," Ed whines.

"You guys say Zip-fly?"

The Eds look below to see the bear Gametoe at their feet. "Let me tell you something about that Nobody," he said. "If you were to face him in battle, I suggest you make with the Haste spells and split."

"Why?" Eddy asked.

"Because he's someone you don't want to mess with!" the bear stated. "The guy's a mixture of a Dusk and a Samurai, with a hint of Assassin. The dude got hands that can morph into katana blades and if you're not careful, he'll slice you open like you were paper!"

"Big deal," said Eddy. "We dealt with guys that are much tougher than what this Zip-fly guy is."

"But Eddy, he's a Nobody, an enemy we haven't dealt with yet," Double D pointed out. "We can't just make assumptions on an enemy that could be tougher than he appears."

"And you know what happens when you guys make assumptions, right?" Gametoe asked.

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Eddy replied. "We don't want to say it because we want to keep the rating the same."

"And I thought you want to cut it with the fourth wall jokes?" Normadomus pitched.

"I mean from you."

"All right, enough!" stated Double D. "Now, could we please make our way off this world and move on to the next one?"

"Yes please!" shouted Eddy. With that, the smart Ed starts to lead the Eds towards the exit of the castle and out towards their Gummi ship. "Sheesh, sometimes he's a bit of a pain," the small Ed mumbles.

"Double D scares me sometimes too," Ed throws in.

"You don't have to say that twice," the greedy Ed replied.

"Oh, and don't forget: if you face Zip-fly, make do with the Haste!" Gametoe shouted, watching the Eds get farther away. "And this is the part where he goes '10 bucks say they won't listen to what I just said.' And I am going to get rich off of that bet."

The bear places his paws into the pockets of his gray pants and begins walking down the hallway, going off in the opposite direction to head back towards his living quarters. Outside of the kingdom, sitting in a tree is the familiar shape of Zip-fly, with a pair of binoculars in hand to spot the Eds walking from afar.

A zipper smile grows on the masked boy's face. "And so it begins..." he mutters out loud.

* * *

And there you go. This is my interpretation of Disney Castle, with two kingdoms in a binary system instead of just a single kingdom based around past Disney characters. Like I said, this is my take on this, so I am using what I have to replace the Disney aspect of _Kingdom Hearts_ and filling in with Cartoon Network stuff or original content. And I could have gone with something from Cartoon Network, but my mind ran blank upon who should be the missing king. And believe me, there are so many characters that are unfitting for that title.

So you have to accept with what I am choosing for this situation and just stick with it until the end. If this bugs you, then I suggest stop reading and go read something else. I am not being mean here; I'm just trying to please the people out there that are interested in reading a good quality story.

So from what you have read, the characters that I talked about are my original characters, with a few being my friends'. The majority of them are from a project that I have in mind, with all of the robots beings, the people in the court, the Dream Sisters, and the teddy bear are all mine, and the princess... well, she's based on someone that I personally like. There's nothing wrong in that.

And I pretty much gave you a rundown on how Cartoon Network got started. You may now thank Fred Seibert for giving birth to what is now Cartoon Network. If it weren't for him making _What A Cartoon! Show_, Cartoon Network will be what Boomerang is today. The only original show that would be on the channel would be _Space Ghost_: _Coast to Coast_. ... I have no opinion on the show, due to that I have seen few episodes of that show to give my opinion.

And again, this is my take. I don't want complaints that I am getting this story wrong. I am saying my theory about how Kingdom Hearts links everything together and how it could be a portal to other universes, like the one that is in the games and the one here, and I am just giving my twist on how everything got started.

And for my UK readers out there: if you got complaints about my friend's kingdom being called the United Kingdom, then send all your complaints to him, not me. He's the one that came up with the name, not me, and the world is all his idea.

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. It's time to officially begin the next ring, which is going to take place right now. And I mean this decade.

And **P.S**: don't ask about my name. And also: no spoiling the Destroyer of Light's name! That'll take the fun out of those new to this story!


	18. Act III, Ch 18: EVO Earth

All right, this is the real deal. I am going to begin this act in the 2010 decade and we are getting close to where we are now in Cartoon Network. I know there are other shows out there, but come on I can't fit _everything_ in here, right? Hey, if there is a chance of doing a sequel (and I'm not talking about the one that I am going to do after this), I want to see more shows going in. But there is one thing I want done if this is ever to be achieve, and I'll explain it later.

So for now, let's talk about what is going on in this ring. Like I said, this is taking place around the turn of the decade, mostly 2010, which is the start of Cartoon Network's bumpy recovery. I know that the majority of you out there are still bumming about Cartoon Network doing the live-action skit after CN Real, but here's what I have to say about the matter: GET OVER IT! ... Sorry. What I meant to say is that, even though I dislike the idea, the new shows aren't that bad if you actually sat down and watch them. Sure they don't belong on Cartoon Network, but give them a chance. They aren't that bad as you think they are.

And to say what this chapter is about... I have no idea on the exact location. Seriously, how am I supposed to know where a top-secret government agency is located if I am doing this chapter? I can't just set it in the middle of the desert and leave it at that! It can be any desert as far as I know. You'll understand once you get to read this chapter.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** belongs and is copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Eighteen – This is Our Providence

OOO

Night is now upon the Eds, with the city around them quiet for the evening and very little activity is happening. Well, save for only the Eds running from a horde of Shadow Heartless, using the open road to their full advantage as they try to escape the Heartless. The Eds temporary look back and kept some of the Heartless back so that the boys could live for a little longer. As they run, the Eds are losing energy, and they knew that if they continue to run, the Heartless is going to catch them and devour their hearts.

"If this is one thing, it's another," stated Eddy. "I don't see why these things happen to us!"

"Well maybe if you and Ed were on the right foot, none of this would be happening to us right now!" snapped Double D.

The Eds round a corner and enter an alley, and Normadomus pulls up a Reflect spell to prevent the Shadows from entering the same alleyway. All three Eds take long strides of breath, getting in some air after running for a few minutes. After a good rest, the boys got back up and Eddy tosses out his shield to clear away some of the Shadows. Once there is an opening, the boys burst out into the street and got to work on the Heartless, clearing every last of them before leaving just themselves in the streets.

"OK, there's no way that many Heartless could be attacking us at once," said Eddy.

"Perhaps they are afraid of something," questioned Double D.

"They aren't usually afraid of anything except pure light and a very strong heart," said Normadomus. "…Unless that could be your answer."

Coming from where they ran from, a slew of monsters pour from the corner and charge right towards the Ed boys without hesitation. These creatures are in different forms from one to another, and several of them are part of the same race, but to what they really are is up to the boys to figure out. They never notice these creatures when they came to this world, only landing in a sleepy city with not a single soul awake anywhere in the city. The only beings the boys came into contact were the Heartless and they did not seem to know about the monsters heading right towards them.

With the monsters closing in, the Eds got ready to take them down, when they can hear the sounds of vehicles coming from behind them. The boys turn around and notice large white vehicles coming to a stop and uniformed men carrying large guns unloading from these vehicles to line up and get into firing position. Each one of the men is dress similarly with a black suit with white padding and a fully hooded face, and everyone one of these men is aiming their guns at the Eds, specifically at the monsters approaching them.

The Eds got out of the way as the men shoot, unloading magazines as they slow the monster wave down and riddle them with bullet wounds. This gives the Eds the chance to move in and take care of the monsters not getting shot at, and the three head towards the back to take care of these creatures. One of these men notices the boys heading towards the back and he shouts out to them not to intervene with the fight. They did not listen as they continue on and challenge some of these creatures, now finding out that these monsters are stronger than the Heartless.

"Hey kids, get out of there!" shouted one soldier. "You're going to get yourselves killed!"

Still, the words has yet to faze the Eds as they got themselves facing off three different kind of monsters, one for each of the boys. Eddy and Double D are having a hard time dealing with their respective monsters, as what they are fighting have thick skin strong enough to prevent any cutting from their weapons, while Ed is easily bashing away at his creature simply by using his magic. With Shadara, Fire and Thundara going everywhere, the tall Ed clears the area around him and he continues on to fight other monsters. Unlike the Heartless however, the monsters got back up and chase after Ed, in which got Double D worry with one particular monster heading right for his friend.

"Ed, look out!" he screamed.

The said Ed looks behind him to notice the gaping darkness of one monster's large mouth, staring right at the creature's razor teeth and standing in fear as the monster closes in on him. Just before the monster shuts its mouth, it feel right before Ed and then transform into a man, wearing only underwear, and on top is a boy in his teens with his hand on the man's back. The teen is a Hispanic, with tanned skin, brown eyes and spiky black hair, wearing an orange jacket over a blue and white shirt, black pants with a futuristic design, black gloves, and a pair of goggles on his forehead.

The Hispanic turns towards the two monsters the other Eds are having trouble with and takes his right arm to form a really large orange sword. Ed's mouth drop down in amazement as the teen rushes forward and starts hacking away at the monster Double D is fighting. The Ed got out of the way, in fear of getting cut by the teen's massive sword, and he watches as the Hispanic got to work on the monster before turning the sword into a hand and placing it on the monster. In a few seconds, the monster converts into a woman, dressed in torn clothing, and she calmly drops to the ground as he looks at the creature Eddy is fighting.

Using his shield to defend himself, the small Ed blocks the attack of the creature he is fighting and will occasionally use his weapons to attack. However, the monster proves to be strong and fast for the Ed, and he wishes that he could have some assistance with his fight, and he got that through a man in a green suit wielding two katana-like swords. The man appears right over head of the small Ed and immediately got to work cutting down the monster to size. With the sight of the man fighting the monster for him, Eddy lets out a sigh of relief and continues to watch before seeing the teen rushing over and covert the monster into a human.

More and more monsters begin to appear and surround the group, closing them off from outside help and the Eds are getting tired again from the constant fighting. However, Ed uses one final Terra spell before plopping to the ground, raising the ground and knocking several of the monsters back. The two new fighters went ahead and clear a path for the Eds, and Double D decides to perform one more move himself on the other monsters surrounding them. Collecting light on his Keyblade, the boy raises his weapon high up and casts Light, sending out rays towards the creatures and inflicting severe damage to them.

Once the light clears, the Ed notices that all of the monsters are humans, with all of them dressed in torn clothes or very little, and this got the Ed wondering how he could do such a thing. Before he can think about it, he drops to the ground and starts to doze off, tired from using too much energy, and his final sight is seeing the teen and the man walking up to them and the teen reaching out his hand to him…

OOO

Now feeling energy in his body, the boy starts to open his eyes, allowing light to bleach his pupils as he wakes up from his slumber. Once fully open, his eyes begin to adjust and he can see a woman walking up to him and placing a hand on his chest, feeling him breathing and listening to his heartbeat to make sure that he is still living. As his vision finally clears, Double D sits up on the table he is on and he looks around to notice that he is off of the streets and inside of a laboratory.

"Well, it looks like you are awake," said the woman, dressed in a scientist outfit. "It's probably a good thing Rex and Six brought you three in before the E. got to you."

The Ed's mind is now racing with thoughts as he notices sunlight coming through the windows of the lab, other scientists working at computers, and the fact that he was sleeping on a work table in his clothes and being analyzed during his sleep. Then a few words register in the boy's head and he looks around to find his friends sleeping on some tables as well, tired from last night's battle, and the Ed lets out a sigh of relief now knowing his friends are here with him. He can feel the hand of the woman scientist on his shoulder and he looks up to notice the calm look on her face.

"Please, you guys have spent a lot of energy last night," she said. "You need to catch some more rest before you go out again."

"Yes, and thank you for what you are doing," replied Double D. "I do have some questions I like to ask. One: where exactly are we and how did we got here? Two: what were those monsters we were fighting back in the city and three: why am I sleeping on this table besides getting some rest?"

"Well to start, you're in Providence, the world's main defense against the growing threat of E.," the scientist replied. "Like I said, Rex and Six brought you three here and some of the scientists treated some of your wounds from the fight. Second, those things were E., creatures that were once humans and turned into those things through microscopic nanites. And third… we're only running a few tests to see what happened to you three."

"Nanites?" echoed the smart Ed. "I have heard of nanotechnology, so is these nanites relating to that?"

"Basically. It was part of a project in a way to help out the human race, but five years ago there was a large explosion and the whole world got infected with them. At least… save for one."

"That's… very disturbing. If the whole world is infected, then that includes plant-life and animals? Even the soil?"

The scientist nods her head grimly in response and the Ed swallows a hard gulp. "But what puzzles me is when we did scans on you three, we found no trace of a single nanite in your bodies."

"Won't you believe us that we were not of this world?"

"He's telling the truth Holiday," said a stoic voice. Here enters the man dressed in a green suit, combed black hair and sunglasses over his eyes. The Ed is getting a strange feeling about this man, but he can trust this man since he did help them in their fight. "We found a ship outside of the city, made out of parts not commonly found here."

"Yes, and we're here on a mission to find our friends, a keyhole and fight some Heartless as well," the Ed added.

"Heartless? You mean those little black things that we occasionally see on missions?" the man asked.

"You're probably talking about the Shadows. Yes, those are Heartless."

"Well when we see them, we don't usually bother with them but when there's an E.V.O. in the area, they tend to get frighten by them."

"That doesn't sound like a normal Heartless," said the wizard hat, getting up. "They usually fight back with those with strong hearts, but to cower away from something that is really a human… that's just not natural."

"We're still figuring that out ourselves," the scientist known as Doctor Holiday replied. She takes a look at the hat and walks up to it, picking him up and placing him down on a small table to get a better inspection of him. "Interesting. I've seen different kinds of E. during my time here, but I never seen one that turns into a hat."

"Madam, I'm not an E.V.O. I'm just a man that has a magic seal preventing me from turning back to normal. Unless you have some sort of way to turn me back to normal using science, I can say that you got a better luck getting one of these boys to brushing their teeth for a straight week!"

"Soap bad for Ed!" the tall Ed declared, rising up from his bed.

"Ed, how does brushing your teeth have anything to do with soap?" asked Eddy, also waking up from his sleep.

"Soap cleans Ed and Ed doesn't want to be clean!"

"Well, at least we now know how to get Ed back to his normal self," mumbles the small Ed, rubbing his face.

"Who're we talking about again?" the tall Ed asked in his usual way.

"Nothing Ed…" Eddy uncovers his eyes and stares around the room that he is in, looking over every single inch of the place before the answer hitting him right in the back of the head. "Hey, how did we…?"

"I already asked that Eddy," replied Double D. "We're at a place called Providence… which is where exactly?"

"We're not allow to give that out," the man in green replied. "That's classified information."

"So, we're somewhere in the middle of nowhere on some world that has some crazy monsters that want to eat us, and we have no way of getting back to our ship and plus we have no idea how big this place is," said Eddy in one go. "Way to choose a world Double D!"

"Hey, it wasn't my decision to come this world in the first place," the smart Ed protested. "Sure I was the one driving the ship, but the radar picked up one of the cul-de-sac children here and we came here to see if it was true."

"That thing was acting wonky. The radar told us that there were a hundred Heartless circling us and we found only ten of those things chasing us!"

"Yes, but you never know if there is going to be someone here in the first place."

"Who wants some buttered toast?" offered Ed.

"Stay out of this Ed!" both the smart and greedy Ed snapped at once.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy boys. There's no need to break into a fight here," said a Hispanic voice. "If you want to continue this, then how'll about I take you out into the desert to fight?"

The Eds look towards to who said that to them and they notice the teen who helped them last night. Right next to the boy is a chimp wearing some clothing, a fez on his head and has an eye-patch covering his left eye, and the chimp has a smug look on his face, as if he is not pleased being in the form he is in or he is thinking of something pleasing. Ed tries to reach out and pet the chimp but Double D holds him back and gives a small talk about how this simian may contain a deadly disease within his fur.

"For your information, I check every day for fleas," the chimp replied, taking his fingers and grabbing a flea on the back of his head.

"And where do they go, I don't want to know," said Double D.

"Still, at least you guys owe us a big thank you from last night," replied the teen. "If it weren't for us, you three would have been E.V.O. food."

"Aren't you that boy who can turn into machines?" Ed asked, eyes beaming.

"Uh, yeah?"

"That's so cool! Then you must be from one of my comics!" the tall Ed said, reaching into his jacket to pull out several issues of different genre of comics. "Wait… I know I have it in here…"

Eddy and the teen, who is apparently the boy named Rex, pick up a few of the comics and flip through them, scanning through the pages to see what new material there is hiding within the covers. Eddy drops the comics that he has on the ground while Rex picks up a few more, now interested in a few of these comics as he asks the tall Ed if he can have a few of them. "Yes, but I want this back," Ed replied, taking one issues away. "No one shall apart me from _Your Junior High Zombie Teacher and I #13_. It beats out the _High School_ series any and every day."

"Right," the Hispanic replied, backing away from the geeky Ed as he focuses on the others. "So are you three from another world or something?"

"Well, we used to have a world of our own before the Heartless destroyed it," replied the smart Ed. "We're on the hunt for our friends and we believe one of them is here on this world."

"Have you seen a little bratty girl, a timid-looking boy hanging out with said girl, another boy gone cuckoo and carrying a piece of two-by-four, or a blue haired chick calling out Double D's name?" Eddy asked.

Rex places a hand on his chin and begins to think about the descriptions the small Ed provided. "No, we haven't seen anyone like those people," he answered. "If we did, they might have gone E.V.O. and might be wandering around here somewhere."

"OK, I can imagine Sarah and Marie doing that, but Jimmy is hard to picture," said the greedy Ed. "Jonny…?"

The other two Ed shrug to this and try to imagine what kind of monster the bald boy will turn into, just before Double D walks up to Eddy and nudges him in the stomach, scolding him about the idea of making Marie and Sarah into monster. The greedy Ed then pitches about how Ed could live in such a place to where turning into monsters is a common thing and this puts a bright smile on the tall Ed's face and a grim look on the smart Ed's.

"Eddy, don't you remember that little incident back at the cul-de-sac?" asked the timid Ed.

"Yeah…?"

"Never. Bring that up. Again," Double D replied. "It's bad enough that I must remain myself about that day, and just saying that here will only rub more salt into the wound!"

"Yeesh, and it's not like Ed here can turn into a monster," replied the greedy Ed. "Besides, he needs those… what are they again?"

"Nanites," replied Rex.

"Right, those things if he wants to turn into a monster," continues Eddy. "We don't have those things in us, meaning we don't have to worry about that!"

"Aw, and I want to wreak havoc on a large, populated area…" Ed sulked.

"Hey, if you want to beat up some E., we got a little place call the Petting Zoo for you three to try out," said the chimp.

Ed's head picks up as soon as he heard "Petting Zoo." "Really, you have a petting zoo?" he asked excitedly.

"It's not much of a petting zoo as more of a research ground and training ground for Rex," replied Holiday. "If you three want, I can set you up with a training round with Rex and have you three earn some more experience fighting the E.."

The Eds talk among themselves, huddling and whispering about the thought of doing it, and they agree to the idea. The teen leads them down to where they keep the large open area known as the Petting Zoo, along with giving the boys a tour of the place. Along the way, the Eds take notice of the countless soldiers dressing the same and a few scientists in the massive building, with the soldiers appearing unknown thanks to their masks and the scientists looking serious about getting rid of these E. instead of getting them back to being humans. According to Rex, he has the only stable nanites following through his bodies and he has the ability to "cure" people of their nanites should they go E.V.O.

The group finds themselves at a large area that is populated with trees, ponds and active wildlife as the teen directs the boys to the elevator to get down. At ground level, the Eds can see several different varieties of E. wandering about and when they notice the boys coming in, the creatures are not that please. "Well, it's time to see how well you guys put up a fight," Rex said, taking his arms and causing his nanites to expand into large metallic fists.

"I wish I can do that!" said Ed, eyes beaming with glee.

"Yeah, along with several other people," mumbles Eddy.

"_All right Rex, this will test you and your new friends in your endurance," said Holiday. "Just don't try to kill them while you're in here_."

"Relax Doc, I know what I'm doing here."

"Question is: why are we here?" asked Double D when he notices an E.V.O. slither out from the trees.

The boys separate and start exploring the mini forest, searching out large quantities of E. to test out their endurance as Double D immediately takes on a large E.V.O. that has the qualities of a snake. With drool dripping off of its teeth, the smart Ed shivers in disgust as he begins to form a plan about how to defeat the creature. A quick lunge forward and a roll from the Ed, the boy takes his weapon and bats down on the snake E.V.O, whacking it on the head and knocking it back into some trees as he ventures ahead to check the rest of this forest.

Eddy is bouncing off of the trees with his shield, using it well as he occasionally blocks a few attacks from the E.V.O. he is fighting. He skids to a stop on the ground and gives an uppercut to the monster, using the sharp edge of his shield to slice through. However, the monster dodges that and knocks the small boy to a tree, causing him to drop his shield and let out a grunt in pain. The Ed looks up to notice the EVO closing in on him, ready to make the finishing move, when a fireball appears out of nowhere and strikes the monster down.

Ed spins his staff around and lets a Shadara fly as he hits two small, bug-like E. and knock them back. As they struggle with the darkness inflicting their eyes, the tall Ed turns around and unleashes a Blizzara from Normadomus, freezing one E.V.O. and encasing it in ice. The boy takes a break for a moment, but there are E. crowding up on him and trapping the Ed in the middle, leaving him the chance to do a Terra spell and knocking them back to free himself. Once clear, Ed runs off to find more E. that he can beat up when he notices the real action unfolding.

Rex, the teen who can morph his body into machines, is already taking down EVO after EVO using an assortment of weapons alongside his partner. With the chimp, known as Bobo Haha, and Rex going at the EVOs expertly, it makes the Eds wonder if they should really be training down here. However, they notice that Rex sprouts a large blue cylinder on his back and a large whip out of his right arm, and they watch him use the whip to beat up the E.. The boys snap out of this and continue on with their training, going after some of the E. while staying out of Rex's and Bobo's way.

The boys team up with Rex and Bobo as the group heads out deeper into the Petting Zoo. Up above the action, Doctor Holiday and the agent is watching every second passing by and every E.V.O. hitting the ground. Holiday is keeping tabs with a clipboard while the agent is staring down with an expressionless face. "So how are the boys doing?" asked the agent.

"By what I'm getting, they seem to be naturals at this," replied Holiday. "It appears that they had some experience fighting in these kinds of fights before, and I'm not talking about just the Heartless."

"So these boys are in some ways 'special?'"

"You can say that. What strikes me odd is the fact that there are no signs of nanites anywhere in their bodies, even after you found them. The air alone would have given these boys nanites into their systems."

"Perhaps it's because of that tall boy," said the agent, referencing Ed. "He looks and battles similar to a wizard, and I have seen him use magic, so there is a possibility that the boys recognized the nanites in the atmosphere and added a protective shield around their bodies."

"That would make sense, but there's something about that idea that doesn't add up…"

The computer screen flickers and changes from a regular data screen to a man completely white staring right at the two. "Six, Holiday, reports are coming in from the West Coast about a large scale EVO attack," the man said. "Apparently it has something to do with Van Kliess, so get Rex out there and get those E. under control."

"Knight, you may want to hear something that I collected," said Holiday.

"What is it?"

"We have some new boys here that are not from around here, and they appear to have no trace of nanites within them."

This statement made the man on screen realize an important detail. "No trace of nanites?" he repeated. "That's impossible! There's no way a normal person should be free of nanites! I'm the only person on this world who doesn't have a single nanite flowing through me!"

"That's not the case for this three," explained Holiday. "Though it seems strange at first, but these boys do _not_ have a single nanite within them."

"Well if this is true, make sure that those three don't leave the premises at all!" stated the white man.

"Right away," Holiday said, flicking the screen off. There is a moment of silence before speaking again. "… They're gone, are they?"

"As usual," replied the agent. "What can you expect from Rex?"

"Maybe don't take three strange boys from another world out on a sight-seeing tour of a place infected with nanites and become E. in matter of seconds?"

"True."

"So are you going to go after the E.V.O. uprising," questioned Holiday. "or are you going after the boys?"

"Rex," replied the agent, with the known name Six. "I'm getting the feeling that this is a trap, and those E. on the West Coast is just a diversion from the real plan."

"Right," the doctor nodded. "If Van Kliess is really behind this, then he is going to go for Rex, and a good way is to break him away from the rest of us. But… what if Van Kliess is really there?"

"Then I'll go retrieve Rex and get him ship out," said Agent Six. "I'll also deploy some men out there to make sure Van Kliess is out there, or someone of the Pack."

Holiday nods to this as the agent heads off to do his mission. "Let's hope you're right on this," she muttered.

OOO

Off in a barren land, deprive of fresh life and habiting only the sickening of freaks, only destruction from a terrible accident remains. With the area crawling with nanites and E. springing up, two E. in particular take a look around their setting on the lookout for another individual. One of these E. is a large mechanical wolf, appearing to be more machine than anything else, and the other being a deformed lizard with a large crystal for a hand. With the two EVOs waiting patiently, they take notice of a red portal opening up and stepping out is a four-armed girl in a schoolgirl outfit and the Nobody Zip-fly.

"Good day to you," said the Nobody. "Is Van Kliess available at the moment?"

The wolf and the lizard charge up to the masked boy, trapping him in a sandwich, and preventing him from going anywhere at that moment. "**What gives you the right to be here?**" asked the wolf in a mechanical voice. "**Your last visit made it clear that you're not wanted here, especially with the rest of your brigade.**"

"Yes, but this time around I am here on a more important notice," said Zip-fly, taking a hand and pushing away the crystal.

"And what makes you think we can't squash you until you have no more air in you?" asked the lizard.

"Because I can cut clean through you with no thought, and if you do kill me, you'll lose the potential useful information needed to help aid you."

Hearing this piece, the two E. break free of the Nobody and the said being lets out a smirk in response. The lizard lets out a growl before getting informed by the wolf, noting that they should not mess with Zip-fly due to his nature, and that he is carrying vital information. Course the two E. know when information is false by telling, but here is a Nobody with a reputation and is under the watchful eye of Father, meaning if he does not go through with his mission, Father will come down and personally deal with the two E..

With Zip-fly free of his confinement, the wolf leads him to a destroyed building up the way. From the features, the building has taken hit from an explosion from the inside, and it was a colossus explosion. What remains is just a hollow shell of a building once a site of research and the home to a small select of E. who want to make a difference in the world, with the leader waiting inside. It was not long before the small group reaches the chamber of the owner of this desecrating region of the world.

Inside of the main chamber is a large empty space being filled up with statues of former creatures, sadly turned to stone. Across the way is a large chair in shape of a throne and sitting in the chair is the man in charge of everything in the region. With long black hair draping over pale skin, a tattered longcoat covering a black undershirt and a large piece of machinery, and a massive robotic arm taking up most of his left arm. With his head resting on his normal right arm, he watches the Nobody and the man's subordinates enter the room with a small smile on his face.

"Ah Zip-fly, isn't this quite a surprise," said the man in a slight British accent. "I thought I made it clear that not you or your cohorts are alone here!"

"Well at least you're not dealing with Prankster and Blitzer anymore," the masked boy replied.

"If you came all of this way to wind up being an airless body, then so be it!" The man got up from his seat and launches his robotic arm forward, stretching it out as the needles on his fingers extend out to stab Zip-fly. The Nobody watches the arm approaching him and jumps up moments before getting pierced, landing on top of the arm and lowering it to the ground.

"I got to say, I didn't expect to see that," said Zip-fly. "You're picking up on some new techniques there Van Kliess, but you're still no match for me!"

The man lets out a growl and retracts his arm back to his body. "Biowulf, Skalamander! Eliminate the threat!"

"**Master Van Kliess, the reason Zip-fly's here is**…"

"Is because he broke our treaty to keep his business out of ours," said the man known as Van Kliess. "Now are you going to get rid of him or do I have to do it myself?"

The wolf and the lizard hesitate at first, knowing that they are dealing with a strong enemy, but they do not want to end up as statues like the other E.. The two got to work but Zip-fly flashes a smile and takes both of his hands to block both attacks, using every ounce of strength to halt the two large E.. With one sweep, the Nobody knocks back both of the E. using his katana hands, spinning around to face Van Kliess. Now with one hand, Zip-fly charges forth in hopes of finally getting to do his business, but he gets intercepted by the four-armed girl.

The girl lifts up one arm and creates a red rift, which prompts Zip-fly to take both of his hands and plant his swords down in the ground. There is a slight suction coming from the rift, meaning that the portal the girl made is taking him far away from the building, and the masked boy decides to sacrifice one of his zippers to close up the portal. Taking the zipper on his mouth, he picks at it in his mouth before spitting it at the rift and closing it, giving him time to react before the girl can get another rift open. Taking her down, the Nobody presents himself with a katana blade under Van Kliess' neck, and the man takes his gauntlet and places it next to Zip-fly in range of getting stab.

"I have enough of your interference," said Van Kliess. "I told you that we don't need your services here on this world, so you can go back to where you came from and leave us be."

"That may be, but I'm here because I have news from Father informing you about the Keyblader being here," Zip-fly replied.

In the man's mind, this appears to be a bluff and wants to do away with this pest, but he knows that Zip-fly is being honest on that and he lowers his guard. Zip-fly takes his hand and morphs it back to normal, giving Van Kliess some breathing room. "Now, as I said, the Keyblader is here on this world, obviously looking for his friends," said the Nobody.

"And how does this concern me? I told you that I have no use for that thing, since I once need nanites to keep me alive."

"Yes, but you didn't get the whole message. We want you to get the Keyblade and hand it to us, and in exchange we will give you all of the nanites you need to keep you full for a year!"

"Thank you for the offer, but I can't take that one up."

"And why not?" asked Zip-fly.

"Because thanks to a certain boy, I was cured of having to steal nanites," explained Van Kliess, clenching his robotic hand. "Now I have the ability to send nanites into others and turn them into my servants."

"That's an interesting little fact. Still, a year's worth of nanites to keep you active is enough to get you the whole world under your control if you think about it."

The man did so, imagining what he can use with that much nanites. Sure the nanites he stole from Rex does have a limit and he could use other sources to acquire more, even if it means stealing from Providence, but with Father offering up that much nanites will make Van Kliess easily the supreme controller of all E.V.O. activity on this world. An infinite supply of nanites for a full year and over six billion people to infect, including the annoying Providence, makes this mastermind's mind rattle with gleeful evil.

"So if we were to get our hands on this Keyblade, Father will be handing all of those nanites to me?" Van Kliess asked.

"Precisely," replied Zip-fly, hearing the wolf Biowulf and the lizard Skalamander getting up from their fall. "And now, I would like to do a little something before I leave…"

Taking one of his hands, the Nobody stabs Van Kliess in the forehead and twists his fingers as if he is unlocking something. Biowulf and Skalamander scurry up to their leader but Zip-fly cuts them off as he pushes them back to allow the man some open room. Within a minute there is silence before Van Kliess starts jerking around, obviously in pain, and then he snaps back to normal, much to the two E.' relief. And then the unthinkable happens as the man suddenly starts skipping back and forth, with his arm up and using an annoying voice.

"_Excalibur / Excalibur_," started Van Kliess in a sing-song voice, "_from the United King / I'm looking for Heaven / I'm going to California_…"

With Van Kliess dancing around like a fool, Biowulf and Skalamander look at their leader with a disgusted look on their faces, as Zip-fly has a zipper smirk on his face. "**What did you do to him?**" asked the wolf.

"I've unlocked a hidden secret deep inside of his mind," the Nobody replied, refraining from laughing. "It's a little ability of mine that allows me to explore the minds of others and control them at my whim."

"Then you should be able to turn him back to normal, right?" Skalamander asked, sounding threatening.

"Of course. Now, there's one thing you should know: this trick of mine does have a side-effect upon saying a certain word."

"**What word is that?**" Biowulf asked.

"And what kind of side-effect?" asked the large reptile.

"The side-effect is that upon hearing the word, it will avert him back to this state and will be like this for ten minutes," Zip-fly said. "And really, why should I explain this word to you when there are at least over a billion of words to choose from, including those of dead languages."

"**Well we should count our blessings on that**," said Biowulf. "**At least, for all we know, don't know any specific languages that will trigger this state again**."

"And how long will this go for?"

"Give it about a minute or so and he should be fine," replied Zip-fly.

After waiting for their leader to finish, all while repeating the same verse over and over while frolicking back and forth, the man snaps out of his spell and he looks around to wonder what just happen to him. He turns to his subjects and ask them the same question, with both wanting to say that their leader acted out of place, but Skalamander replied that he zoned out and stood standing like a statue for a few minutes.

"That's strange… I can remember being inside of a cave and I couldn't move at all," Van Kliess said, grabbing a hold of his head with his normal hand. "I saw a few fairies flying about and shooting me a disgusted look, as if they are horrified by me or something."

"That seems like the kind of reaction I get from people sometimes," said the giant lizard.

"**You look exhausted**," said the wolf. "**Allow me to escort you to your room**."

"Thank you," said Van Kliess before turning to Zip-fly. "Well, whatever you did it seems to fail. Your service is no longer needed here. You can return back to Father now."

"Appreciate being here as always," said the Nobody, making his way to the exit before stopping. "Excuse me for a sec, but I can speak to Biowulf for a second?"

OOO

Soaring above the skies in one of Providence's "borrowed" ships, Bobo is at the helm as the Eds and Rex relax in the drop bay as they wait to arrive at their destination. Ed is asleep in his seat and Eddy looks anxious to get out, while Double D and Rex are busy talking about different things to keep themselves busy.

"So you guys fly around in that red ship all to look for your friends?" asked the teen.

"Indeed," replied the smart Ed. "We found most of them already, and we're down to the remaining four. Hopefully when we reach our destination, we can find one of them and introduce you to them."

"Sounds like a plan. Well it's too bad that you guys are going to be leaving once you find your friends, because…"

"Because what?"

"I don't know," replied Rex. "I haven't thought out the details yet, but I do want to explore the worlds out there. Now that I know there are other worlds out there, all of those nanite free, maybe I can finally have a normal life."

"But you said that you're the only one that can cure these people," explained Double D. "If what you said about Providence is true, then would they go back to their original routine and kill innocent people?"

"Listen, not a lot of these people are innocent. Many of them do go corrupt with their new powers and want to take advantage of that power. Of course Knight wouldn't care until every single E.V.O. is swept clean off of the earth, even if it means killing off his own men…"

"I see…" Double D replied gloomily. "So this White Knight person is the only one to not have any nanites in him?"

"Apparently, until you three showed up," said Rex. "I'm going to guess that Knight found out about you three and are sending a search team for us in hopes of studying you to learn how to be nanite free."

Ed begins to stir during his slumber, lifting his head up as if he is waking up, only to drop it down and continue to sleep. "… must allow… surgery… on me…" he muttered, with slight drool appearing on his lip.

"Heh, that's Ed for you," said Double D, letting out a small chuckle.

Static appears above their heads and the boys tilt up to listen to the intercom. "_May I have your attentions ladies, we're approaching our destination so you may want to buckle up_," ordered Bobo. "_We should be landing in no time_."

"Is he always like that?" asked Eddy.

"Not always," replied Rex, getting himself ready. "He's a good ally to have and has covered my back plenty of time, so really it's his decision to act like that."

The Providence ship lowers down towards the outskirts of the town they are visiting, and the ships comes to a stop as the hatch door opens up and the boys exit the ship. Rex leads the Eds into the town and takes them up the way to a little building fit to be a club. In fact, there is a line outside of the building and a large bouncer guarding the door, meaning there is going to be some waiting for these boys. However Rex and Bobo walk up to the bouncer and begin to talk to him, in which grants them access inside and causing the line to throw a fit about the boys having access.

Eddy went up to the teen and notes how he managed to do that, which follows by Rex saying that he was part of an E.V.O. infection and the teen helped the man and his family from getting into serious trouble, along with helping out some of other locals as well. Ed starts blurting out random questions about the E., which prompts people staring at them and having Eddy hushing Ed. The smart Ed lets out a sigh as he takes a good look around his setting.

"So why exactly are we doing here?" asked Double D.

"I need to get away from Providence every now and then," replied Rex. "Besides, this is really Bobo's idea to come here in the first place."

"I hear that there's a great band playing tonight," the chimp said. "It's their first gig and I hear that they have two important people in this band."

The Eds look at each other and they shrug, making note that this may be a chance for them to catch a break, so they got themselves at the bar counter and turn to face the stage. Up on stage, a teen wearing a maroon shirt and brown pants got up into the spotlight and begins checking the microphone, only to get it to the right level and give it a good tap. "All right people, we are about to get our show ready," he said. "In a few minutes, our band will come up and play a few songs, so just sit back and enjoy a few rounds as we get ready for our show."

Some of the patrons clap for the teen as he backs away from the microphone and got to work on some of the equipment on the stage. As the teen is busy, Bobo orders up some drinks for the boys, with the Eds getting variety of soda and Rex and Bobo some water. They spin around in their chairs to notice other band members walking on stage. There are three of them, with one being the guitarist, another being the bassist, and another person who looks like the lead singer.

Each one of the band members, with the teen wearing the maroon shirt got behind the drums and gives a final check. The guitarist is wearing a brown jacket over a green shirt and brown pants, and for his guitar it is a real battle axe that is turned into a six-string guitar. For the bassist, she is a very attractive woman with long black hair, a grey tank top, a pair of blue jeans, a pair of boots and her instrument is a red bass. Finally the singer is about the same age as the drummer, with him wearing a red shirt and black shorts, and he gives the microphone an adjustment to make it at his height.

"All right people, we are ready to begin," the boy said, once he got the microphone right. "So get yourselves ready for a great show!"

The patrons begin to cheer as the drummer taps his drumsticks together to get the beat going. The guitarist strums a note, allowing the drummer to tap the bass pedal and the singer flashes one, two, three, four fingers with the beat before pointing straight up as the music to play. The music is booming out of the speakers and the singer walks up to the microphone as he got into the rhythm of the song, grabbing a hold of it and playing with it before grabbing a hold and start singing.

"_Don't want to be an American idiot  
Don't want a nation under the new media  
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?  
The subliminal mind freaks America_

"_Welcome to a new kind of tension  
All across this alien nation  
Where everything isn't meant to be OK  
Television dreams us tomorrow  
We're not the ones we're meant to follow  
For that's enough to argue_"

"I say, this band's really good," said Double D.

"Though it makes me wonder if they are going to get away with this," said Eddy.

"It's a cover, what do you expect?" replied Bobo.

"_Well maybe I'm the bigot America  
I'm not part of a redneck agenda  
Now everybody to the Propaganda  
And sing along to the Age of Paranoia_

"_Welcome to a new kind of tension  
All across this alien nation  
Where everything isn't meant to be OK  
Television dreams us tomorrow  
We're not the ones we're meant to follow  
For that's enough to argue_"

The singer backs away from the microphone to allow the spotlight to focus on both the guitar and bass players, allowing them to play a solo. The audience is keeping along with the beat, and the Eds are getting into the groove of the song. As the solo is playing, Rex eyes someone towards a door and he got up from his seat to check out who is this person, as the light in the bar is dim to allow the band to play. Double D looks up and he notices Rex heading where the person is, even going to get up from his seat to ask Rex where he is going, but Eddy stops the Ed from moving.

"And where do you think you are going?" he asked.

"I am going to check on Rex," the smart Ed responded.

"Nah, he's just going to the bathroom," replied Ed. "We all do it."

"_Don't want to be an American idiot  
One nation controlled by the media  
Information age of hysteria  
It's calling out to idiot America!"_

During that one line, the singer draws out a single piece of paper and flashes it to the crowd, showing the people a drawing of a person giving a raspberry and the words "Up Yours!" written on top. The band went back to playing the rest of the song, repeating the chorus one more time as they draw near the end of the song. The lights brighten after the last note, with the singer gripping onto the microphone while doing a pose, and the other band members are in a pose as well.

After a few seconds, everyone is cheering for the band, giving the members a positive feedback on their cover. The lead singer got the microphone straighten and tries to speak, but as soon he opens his mouth, the lights blacken and the whole room went pitch black. The people inside of the club begin to panic as some of the officials running off commands to the scared locals. Double D calls out his Keyblade and allows a temporary burst of light out as he prepares to use his Light spell to brighten up the room. Just before he does, a hole forms in the side of one of the walls, casting light into the darken place as screaming people quickly make their way to the exit.

Two E. enter the room and the Eds got up from their seats with their weapons in hand, and Bobo draws out two large red guns from behind him and aims them straight at the E.. "All right you freaks, I'm not sure why you're here, but you're not going to go after Rex while we're around," said the chimp.

"**Oh, you have no jurisdiction over that**," said the E.V.O, with the lighting revealing it to be Biowulf. "**We're here for the boy and we're going to get him one way or not**."

"Eat fire, demonic love beast!" shouted Ed, blasting a Fire spell at the mechanical wolf.

The fireball hits Biowulf and engulfs the wolf in flames, spreading all over its body as Skalamander charges into the room and swings his mighty crystal arm. Double D takes his Keyblade and deflects the attack, countering the blow as Eddy leaps in and uses his shield to try to push back the large reptile. Being knocked back by the weight, the small Ed comes up with a plan and he rushes over to the counter to begin his new plan. Jumping up onto the counter and aiming right at Skalamander, Eddy takes his shield and places it in front as he leaps off of the counter and goes into a spin.

Skalamander takes his large crystal arm and blocks the attack, but gets knock back as Eddy continues to drill forward, chipping away at the thick gem. Double D takes the moment to swat at the lizard's legs, tripping the creature and allowing Eddy to continue on flying and hit the blazing Biowulf. Knocking the wolf down, Eddy got back on his feet and looks around for Bobo and Rex, only to find the chimp heading over to the fleeing band and then shifts back to the attacking Skalamander.

"Hey, I believe I know you two," said Bobo, pointing to the singer and the drummer. "You two look so familiar."

"What are you talking about?" asked the drummer in a frantic. "Can't you see that this place is being overrun?"

"Oh yeah that. Don't worry about it, I got some company that will…"

A door pops off of its hinges and hurls straight across the room, passing right by the band and Bobo as Rex flies into the room next and catches himself. He looks straight ahead of him, morphs his right arm into a giant sword and charges ahead to take on whatever knocked him out of the room. Appearing out from the tiny doorway is a large tentacle and Rex takes his sword arm to cut into it, only for the blade to stop in an inch and for the teen to struggle getting it out.

"A little help here!" he shouted.

Ed overhears this and breaks away from his fight, rushing over to help the struggling Hispanic as the tentacle pulls back and drag the two boys into the room. Ed puts his heels into the ground and slows the two to a stop, freeing Rex from his trap and allowing him to change his arm back to normal. From there, another hole is form in the building, this time coming from above and showing everyone the E.V.O. that Rex is fighting.

"Hey, I know that creature!" stated Ed.

"Uh, I don't think that this is the time to be recalling one of your comics," said Rex. "We need to get these people out of here and lure that E.V.O. out of here."

"Yeah, about that," said Bobo, pointing behind him to allow Rex to see that the band is gone. "They left after you flew out of the bathroom. Who knew you had it in you?"

"Can it and just help us get rid of these things," Rex replied, putting on his goggles.

"All right, you don't have to be a sourpuss about it," the chimp said, drawing his weapons.

The fire on Biowulf dies down and he focuses on the teen in his sight, and makes a dash for the boy, only for Double D to step in the E.V.O's path. The mechanical wolf uses one of his claws to slash at the Ed, but he blocks that using his Keyblade and the two got caught in a trade-off, blocking each one of their attacks before Double D skidding back and casting a Distraction. Biowulf begins to fall for the illusion, only to backhand the smart Ed and knocking him back a few feet.

"**Please kid, you think that little illusion is going to stop me?**" he asked. "**You need to come up with a better tactic if you want to protect the boy any longer.**"

Eddy comes rushing up with his shield in hand, only for him to get hit by one of Skalamander's crystals and get stuck on a wall. The two E. make their move towards Rex and got ready to take the boy down, only for Ed to get in-between them and unleash a Shadara on the two. Getting hit by the darkness spell and scooting back a few feet, Skalamander tries to shoot crystals at him as well, but Normadomus uses an Aero spell to knock the shards right back at the E. and Biowulf slicing them down.

"**Why don't you give it up already?**" asked Biowulf. "**It's clear that you boys don't stand a chance against us**."

"Really, because I can assure you that one of us actually made a dent in that crystal and another set one of you on fire," said Normadomus. "I'm pretty certain that qualifies as standing a chance against you."

The two E. begin to make a move towards the tall Ed, only for a red portal to open up behind them and the four-armed girl to appear from the portal. This is a cue to Biowulf and Skalamander, and the two got to the portal just as Bobo comes up charging and Eddy freeing himself from hanging on the wall. Just as they try to do some damage, the two E. escape through the portal and left the remaining people in the middle of a torn club and Rex fighting a giant squid-like E.V.O.

"… What just happen?" asked Eddy.

"I have no idea," replied Ed.

"Hey, anyone, I could some help back over here!" stated Rex.

The Eds turn around to find struggling with the large E.V.O. and they rush in to help the teen out, only for them to notice a Providence ship flying into view and a man dropping down from the skies. That man is Agent Six, wielding two swords in hand and making a straight line right for the E.V.O, getting a clear shot at its back. With a few Providence soldiers dropping down on zip-lines, the monster whips around and smacks the soldiers but not Six, who takes his swords and stabs the E.V.O's tentacle. Once slicing through and getting to the bottom, the towering E.V.O. begins to retreat before getting surrounded by Providence soldiers and getting shot at.

"Six, what are you doing here?" asked Rex.

"We're here to get you," replied the agent, watching the E.V.O. "Knight said that there is an EVO infestation on the West Coast and I was sent to retrieve you, but we got a bigger problem on our hands."

"Yeah, that thing," Eddy pointed out.

"No, not that. It appeared that the West Coast infest is just a diversion and Van Kliess is striking Providence right now."

"So what are you doing here?" Rex repeated. "Shouldn't you be at Providence protecting it?"

"I got word from Holiday two minutes ago," answered Six. "It was either heading back without you and have Providence to get overthrow, or come and inform about the situation."

The boys talk it over between each other, thinking about the situation that is before them, and they agree to head back to Providence to deal with Van Kliess. As Rex and Bobo head out to the ship, Ed and Eddy rush over to their fallen friend and heal him back into shape using a little bit of their Hi-Potion. The smart Ed got back onto his feet, staggering slightly as he recalls getting hit hard by the mechanical wolf, and then the Eds can hear the roar of the Providence Bobo is driving. The hatch door is open and the Eds rush up to get inside, as the ship lifts up off of the ground and heads back to Providence.

"I got to say, this feels like being in a war," said Double D.

"Well the real action is about to take place back at Providence," said Rex. "I hope you guys are capable of taking on Van Kliess."

"Heh, we took down a devil, a muscular alien, two large Heartless and a fleet of robots!" stated Eddy. "We wouldn't be here if we had trouble with those things."

"Plus we have experienced tougher enemies in our past," added the smart Ed. "If there is one thing we know about and that is how to deal with tough adversaries."

Upon hearing this, Rex gives a nod in return and the boys got down in their seats as the ship makes a quick line towards Providence. After a few minutes of flight, the drop door opens up and Rex heads out, allowing the nanites in his body to form wings on his back as the Eds drop out of the ship as well. With some assist from Normadomus' Blizzaga, the three Eds are skating down to a large hole that is in the side of Providence and rolls right into the hallway to find soldiers fighting off E..

"Yeesh, it's terrible in here," the small Ed mumbled.

"All right, we need to find Van Kliess and hopefully this whole charade," said Rex, flying into the hole.

The teen rushes ahead and begins to tackle some of the E. as the Ed follow behind and watch some of the soldiers take down the monsters. With some of these creatures being thick-skinned, the bullets fail to penetrate as soldiers fall victim to their attacks and allowing the Eds to finish them. As they got deeper into the building, they begin to notice several bodies lying unconscious or dead because of the E.V.O. infestation.

"To woe, the Red Shirt Army that is before thee / How could such an uniform could call upon the end?" quoted Ed. "One such man is proud to fight among thy ranks / Only for thee to lie on the field, staining the earth with blood / Oh how does one survive such a fate among these ill-fated men / When Fate and Death takes control and play their cards?"

"… Ed, I didn't know you were a poet," asked the smart Ed.

"Uh, did that came out of your mouth?" Eddy pointed out.

Double D realizes the words he mentioned and catches that thought as he looks over his tall friend to make sure he said the right thing. "… I'm certain on that Eddy, but I have no idea how that came about."

"If Ed here can recite poetry, then the world's coming to an end!" said the small Ed. "We need to get off this world and leave Ed behind."

"Oh no, you're not leaving me on this crazy world!" stated Normadomus. "Take me with you if civilization is coming to its extinction!"

"What are you guys blabbing about? Can't you see that we're in the middle of something?" stated Rex, deflecting a blow with his sword.

The Eds snap out of their little spell and they help aid Rex in his fight against in his battle, taking down the E.V.O. as the four continue to head deeper into the building before reaching the Petting Zoo. Down in a clear zone the boys can see the body of Van Kliess standing there, watching the havoc going around as he looks up to where Rex is and puts a devious smile on his face.

"Well it's about time you show up here," said the villain. "I was hoping that you fall for my diversion out on the West Coast."

"Yeah, we were busy doing something else," replied Eddy.

"Oh and it looks like you brought some new friends. They look perfect to join my E.V.O. army."

Van Kliess takes his bionic arm and extends it forward, needles sticking out as Rex takes his own arm and catches the extending arm. Keeping a strong hold on it, the Eds use this to help get down to the field, as Biowulf and Skalamander appear and start attacking the Eds. Rex lets go of Van Kliess' hand and jumps down to join in on the fight, morphing his feet into much larger ones and slams the villain down. With all of the boys down in the Petting Zoo and three E. fighting them, the fight begins as Double D uses a Blizzard spell to freeze Biowulf.

The wolf breaks free and approaches Eddy, and Ed steps in to give a beating to the mechanical wolf, calling out different insults about something as Eddy and Double D charge towards Van Kliess. Skalamander steps in and starts swinging his crystal arm, as both Eds use their weapons to defend themselves, and the large reptile switches to shooting crystal shards. With the Eds busy, Rex approaches Van Kliess for the two to once again take part in another battle between the two.

The villain begins his fight by taking his arm and swinging towards the teen, and Rex got a large hand to block it. Van Kliess moves forward and tries to strike at the teen, only to fake him out and getting himself free from the boy's grip. The man takes his arm and launches the tips from his fingers, sending them towards Rex, as Double D breaks away from his fight and uses his Keyblade to deflect the needles. Van Kliess lifts his arm up and slams it down, separating Rex and Double D as the teen morphs a hand into a sword and the two strikes Van Kliess with their cutting instruments.

Ed and Eddy switches out opponents as the small Ed takes his shield and deflects several of Biowulf's slashes. Ed tries a few times to perform a Fire and a Thundara, but Skalamander is preventing him from performing a single spell, leaving only his hat to blow the lizard away with an Aeroga. Now with room, the tall boy unleashes a fireball from his staff and lets it zip through the tree, blazing right by before hitting the reptile and burning off in an instant. Ed switches to his Thundara but before he can launch it, Biowulf jumps over head of Eddy and hovers right above Ed to land a finishing move.

That is, if Bobo did not drop in to shoot a round into the wolf's face and knocking him away from the tall Ed. The chimp is up in a tree, pointing a smoking gun right at the E.V.O. as the chimp raises the gun up to his mouth and blows the smoke away. "You ladies miss me yet?" he asked.

Bobo jumps down from the tree and joins in on the fight as he and the two Eds take on Biowulf and Skalamander. Over with Rex and Double D, the two are struggling against the clearly stronger Van Kliess, who appears to be gaining strength around him. Double D tries to use a Distraction but the man proves to be smarter than the boy, and he negates the Break before the Ed can perform it. Rex takes his hands and morphs them into a pair of weights dangling at the end of each hand and he got them spinning around as he bashes the weights into Van Kliess.

The villain recovers mid-flight and he strikes once again with his robotic arm, going after Rex as Double D takes his Keyblade and pierces right down the palm. Van Kliess is surprise by this and the Ed uses a Thunder to send the electricity through the arm and up to Van Kliess, giving him a shock as he falls back to the ground. The Hispanic got his hands back to normal and he walks up to the Ed proposing an idea, suggesting that they can combine their moves in hopes of taking down all three enemies at once. Double D agrees to this and he got himself ready for the new attack.

The smart Ed gives his Keyblade a twirl as Rex forms his sword to get the boys ready for their first strike. Van Kliess staggers a bit after taking the hit from the Thunder and he watches as the two boys come charging at him. Skalamander steps in but he gets beat down two blows from two different cutting instruments. The two switches tactics by going long range by having Double D using his magic and Rex making a large gun appear from his arm. The man regains needles in his arm and unleashes them, but Eddy steps in and deflects those needles.

Double D and Rex launch a few of their long range attacks, and a portal appears to sweep those attacks away. However Eddy takes his shield and hits the girl inside of the portal, regaining his weapon back in time before the portal closes. Now with only Biowulf and Van Kliess standing, the two fighters switch again and decide to go for a rush attack. Rex jumps back and allows his feet to transform into a hoverbike-like device and Double D to create a Haste spell, and the two charges forward with speed.

Biowulf looks around and tries to predict where they are going to land, only to be focusing on the circling Hispanic and not the blinding Ed boy. Double D quickly flashes but disappears as Rex appears behind Biowulf and strikes him on the back, only to lead the two boys to trade blows before landing their finishing move. With the wolf down, all that is left is Van Kliess and the two know what they have in mind to take him down. Rex grabs a hold of the shaft of the Keyblade, allowing some of his nanites to run freely on the weapon, and Double D charges up a Light spell as the villain prepares for their final assault.

Van Kliess takes his robotic arm and fires at the two boys, but Rex counters that by using his whip form and the smart Ed takes off to perform his move. With no way to counter, the man watches as Double D raises his Keyblade up into the air and unleashes his move, casting out light in every single angle to get everyone in the room to cover their eyes. In seconds, the light from the Keyblade is enough to permanently blind everyone who stares at the core, and the force is strong enough to make those E. who are not cure to be, making them small animals and plants once again.

Once the light subsides, Double D checks over the damage and finds Van Kliess still standing but not responding. Eddy walks up and gives him a few taps to see if he is still alive. Once knowing that they have won the battle, the boys let out a cheer in celebration, only for that victory to be cut bluntly and the three E. to stand back up on their feet. The Eds are in disbelief as Biowulf, Skalamander and Van Kliess are back to their normal selves, plainly skeptical about how such a powerful attack fail to take these three down.

"What the…? Even after all of that, we couldn't even take these guys down!" stated Eddy. "That's completely lame!"

At that moment, Van Kliess and Biowulf stop in their tracks and grab onto their heads as their bodies begin to twitch violently. The boys drop their guard, but continue fighting, as they watch the two EVOs freak out and launch about as their spasms grow stronger. After a minute, the two are quiet and then they launch up, startling the boys as the two begin to get into a pose and skip back and forth.

"_Excalibur / Excalibur_," started Van Kliess and Biowulf in a sing-song voice, "_from the United King / I'm looking for Heaven / I'm going to California_…"

The group stops their fighting and drops everything in their hands as they watch a grown man and a mechanical wolf do a ridiculous pose, dance around for a bit and sing the same lyrics over and over again. By the look of it, the Eds, Normadomus, Rex and Bobo Haha grew a very disgusted look on their faces, obviously not pleased by the two villains behaving the way they are now.

"Tell me, how in the world this happen?" asked Eddy.

"I have no idea," replied Rex. "I think they're having a midlife crisis, but for all know… this is… really…"

"… _**LAME!**_" all six answered at once.

Just as the two are continuing their little skit, Agent Six walks into the Petting Zoo along with some soldier and he raises an eyebrow about seeing Van Kliess skipping back and forth and singing the same verse. He looks over to the boys to see their disgusted look, and he orders the soldiers to drag the two out, only for a portal to open up and Skalamander pushing his leader and Biowulf into the portal, just before the Providence soldiers can get to them. Once the E. are gone, Agent Six walks up to the boys and tries to snap them out.

"… Let us never speak of this again," the agent said, with everyone nodding in response.

The Eds break out of their spell and look around to see the destruction that Van Kliess' E. have done to the place. Upon hearing from Agent Six, the man was trying to lead Rex out from Providence so that he can acquire a part that will fuel yet another one of Van Kliess' schemes. To what the device is and what is the goal is unsure, but at least the Eds prevent something that will cause a very disastrous event on this world. A few soldiers come into the room and begin to ask about having the Eds be checked out and the boys are carried away back to the room where they first started when they arrived here.

Up in the research room, Doctor Holiday got all three boys strap down and has each one of them analyze to see any new progress they made here on this world. On one of the screen is the man in white, called White Knight by Rex, and he is watching over the scanning as the last Ed pops out and is now standing on his feet. Doctor Holiday moves to a computer and begins checking the results of each one of the boys, looking over the numbers to see if anything has changed from the morning.

"Well Doctor?" Knight asked.

"Well according to the new reports… it appears that the boys _do_ have nanites in their system," the doctor replied grimily. "It appeared that being in this world is enough to get them infected with them."

The man in white cursed under his breath as he focuses back on the group before him. "Well, since that the boys do have nanites, it is best that they should leave," he said. "However, they must not give away any information they have obtained during this trip."

"Agree," said Agent Six.

"And we're going to be tightening up things around here. I don't want another repeat like today, or otherwise the repair cost is coming out of your salaries!"

The screen flicks off and Holiday lets out a sigh, which lets the Eds to wonder what that was about. "Don't worry about Knight there," she said. "He's paranoid about being the last human on this world being nanite-free. If he finds out that you three still don't have nanites in you, then you'll be tested until we find a cure."

"I want to be tested on!" Ed pitched. "Make me into a zombie!"

"Easy, Ed. If you want to be a zombie, then just wait until we get home," said Double D.

"We're going to let this little discussion slide for now," said Six, "but Knight is serious about keeping quiet about us. I'm sure that you three can keep this a secret for us?"

"Yes," all three Eds replied at once.

"Cool. Say, if you guys are in the neighborhood," said Rex, "why not drop by and maybe you three can hang out with Noah, Bobo and me?"

"That sounds like fun!" stated Eddy, as the Eds begin to make their way towards the hanger.

After getting instructions on where to go, the boys got into the hanger and quickly find their ship waiting for them. Once getting inside, some of the soldiers open the hanger doors and the Gummi ship sails out to join the open air space and then travelling up into space. After a few minutes, the Eds are out of the atmosphere and away from the world they were visiting, which is comprise of a strange creature with the Providence building on top and a desecrating forest on the bottom half.

"So Double D, how come we haven't seen any of the others here?" asked Eddy.

"Well here's the problem," said Double D, flicking the radar. "It was some interference coming from the world and that was probably how we got confused on that."

"Still if those little machines were behind all this and we somehow came unclean, should we have those things inside us?"

"I want to have the ability to transform!" stated Ed randomly.

"According to Doctor Holiday, we are clean… but that doesn't say much about my own Keyblade," said the smart Ed, calling forth his weapon. "First travelling through cyberspace and then getting infected with nanotech. What next will come be forth this mighty weapon?"

"Only a bad omen," muttered Normadomus, saying it too low for anyone to hear, as the Eds fly away from the infected E.V.O. Earth and continue on to their next destination.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Blunt Drill _– An Eddy-specific move that launches him forward and spins like a drill, using his shield to add more damage to the blow._  
Nanite Override_ – Combining the Eds' weapons with Rex's nanite machines, the boys create a combination strong enough to take down even the toughest of enemies, finishing off with a purification move.

OOO

*snickering* . . . *bursts out laughing* Oh man, can I write a funny scene or what?

Seriously, I don't think I can pull off six on-screen "I-Have-Met-Excalibur" faces including an extra two as well, get _Agent Six _to comment on it, _AND_ have Van Kliess and Biowulf dance around like pansies while singing the world's most annoying (or awesome) song! It takes talent to think of something like that… that, and also know where to find these things.

So yeah, I figure that this is a good way to start the new decade by using _Generator Rex_. It's pretty much like the opposite of _Ben 10_ (at least to my friend) with a great story and bland powers. That is to my friend. Originally this was going to be taken place during when Van Kliess was missing and there was that massive break, so I was kinda waiting on when he is coming back. I thought that I will come up with an excuse to have him in the chapter, but the show already provided me with that, along with new powers! At least I got the chance to showcase that.

And for those who aren't laughing their behinds off from my little Excalibur joke, allow me to say this. If you look up who plays both Van Kliess and Biowulf and discover why I put that song in there… man, I am evil! Oh, and that poem Ed recited is my own work, just talking about the Providence soldiers constantly dying and referring that to something that I constantly wear… I hate people sometimes *vein bulging*

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next we take a trip into the past, and possibly a Cartoon Cartoons series (if it were ever was released back during 2001).

P.S: … _**LAME!**_


	19. Act III, Ch 19: Stormalong Harbor

And now to continue on with this ridiculous story of mine, by traveling much deeper into Cartoon Network's universe and keep things rolling for the Eds. We're only nine more chapters away from the end of this story and eight more until the final fight, so we're that close people! But first, we need to get through this chapter before going on to the next world.

Now what do we have here… well if you can figure out who the man who made this show, then you should know what I am going to do. If not, then always check the handy-dandy drop-down menu and you will see the world's name. Plus, like all of the shows, I'm going to stick with an original plot and set this after the series finale, so who knows what is going to happen. And you're going to find out!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story.**

* * *

Chapter Nineteen – Harbor Towards Adventure

OOO

All is quiet out in the emptiness, except for the Eds' ship the _Midnight Hummer_ sailing through the black in their continuing search for their friends. The smart Ed has one of his charms out, dangling the red, yellow and black one and wonders what this will summon, as the other two boys wait about for some action to appear. With not much going on, the flight to the next world is yet another dull one.

"Oh what wouldn't I do for something to eat," rambled Eddy.

"You can clean out my ears and right between my toes," Ed offered, even going as far as to take off his shoes.

The whiff of the powerful odor emitting from the tall Ed's feet is enough to send both the small and medium Ed into shock and recoil in disgust by the potent smell. "Ed, put your shoes back on!" barked Eddy with his nose plugged. "You're going to stink up the place!"

The tall Ed hesitates to put his footwear back on but when he notices his friends choking from the odor, he heads off to the lounge room to be by himself. Once he is gone from the cockpit, the air begins to filter out and the two Eds take a long breath of refreshing air. Both Eds let out a long good sigh of relief, exhaling the clean air, as they lean back in their chairs and look out into the black space.

"You know Eddy, with all of these worlds that we are visiting," said Double D, "you think that the stars that we see are other worlds."

"Other worlds, huh," Eddy mumbled.

"Yes, and the worlds we are visiting now is possibly a small fraction to maybe the countless other worlds out there in this universe of ours."

"… Say Double D, when this is all over, what's going to happen to everything once we are done with this mission?"

The smart Ed leans up onto the dashboard and begins to think over what the small Ed just said. He does raises up a valid question as the Eds do not know what the outcome is when their mission comes to an end. In fact, they are still unsure about what they are going to do about living accommodation since their world is gone. They could go live in Traverse Town for the time being, but what will the children do without their parents? If there is something that can help them in their mission, then maybe their answers lie within the two kings.

Question is: where are those kings?

A sharp blow rocks the entire ship, knocking all three Eds down onto the ground and tripping off the alarms. Double D pulls himself back up using the dashboard and he checks the radar to notice a large enemy right behind their ship. Eddy heads over to his terminal and flips his monitors on to see who is attacking them, only to see the metal jaw and the burnt hole of the Pirate Ship staring right at him.

"Uh Double D, that Pirate Ship is back," he called out worriedly, "and it looks like it wants to have its revenge on us!"

"Eddy, get Ed out of the lounge and get into your terminals!" ordered the smart Ed. "We need to hold this ship off while I search over for any weak points."

On cue, Ed rolls out from the lounge and jumps up onto his feet to get up into his terminal, follow by Eddy doing so. With the two Eds sitting in their respective turrets, the barrels aim straight at the much larger Pirate Ship to get ready to shoot it down. Panels along the Heartless ship's hull open up to allow smaller cannons to appear from the slots, and heavy Fire rounds rocket out from the cannons to destroy the smaller Gummi ship. Eddy and Ed got rounds ready to go and fire their cannons off to deflect the incoming rounds, and Double D steers clear of the missed fire to prevent getting hit.

A push down on the controls and the _Midnight Hummer_ begins to go into a dive, heading under the Pirate ship as the Gummi ship flies upside down before straightening out, and Eddy takes the moment to open fire on the underbelly. The Pirate Ship shivers in pain as it rockets ahead and launches several missiles from the deck. With the missiles locking onto the Gummi ship, the smart Ed begins to recall movies he had seen in his youth about this kind of situation, but he is dealing with several missiles instead of the typical one and two rockets.

Taking all of his movie knowledge, the Ed pulls back on the controls and pushes down on the throttle to get the ship going up into a back flip. Once at the peak of the flip, he levels out and dives down towards the Pirate Ship with the missiles still tailing the boys. Calculating when the appropriate time is to lose the missiles, Double D got the ship spinning as the Heartless ship fires their cannons to knock the _Midnight Hummer_ down. With only yards distancing between them, the smart Ed pulls on the breaks and heads away from the Heartless ship, allowing the missiles to hit the Pirate Ship and increase the damage it has already taken.

"Yeah, way to go Double D!" stated Eddy happily.

"We're not out of this mess just yet," the medium Ed replied, noticing the red blip on the radar still beeping.

The damage that the missiles have done is enough to obliterate a normal ship of any kind, but the Eds can see that the Pirate Ship is still flying from the heavy blow. Now Heartless are dragging out a large cannon for them to conduct their revenge on the Eds and win the fight. With the large piece of equipment getting prep work done, the two turret Eds open fire on the Heartless ship now with its defenses lowered. The front begins to open up and charges forward to bite down on the boys' ship, but Double D got out of the way in time and Ed fires a Gravity round into the mouth of the Pirate Ship.

The jaw closes down and the Gravity round explodes inside of the ship, doing little damage overall as the cannon onboard is finished prepping and is now charging up. Eddy tries to shoot at the cannon and hopes that it will blow up if he deals enough damage, but the measly Fire rounds are not enough against the heavy armor of the Heartless cannon. The large weapon fires its single round, launching it at a high angle as the Eds are warned about this. Ed and Eddy did their best to stop the incoming projectile, but all of their fire is not putting a stop to the approach of their doom.

"Double D, we're gonna need a little more speed here!" whined Eddy.

"I wish I could provide what you asked for, but I have the throttle at its max setting!" stated Double D.

"Then what are we going to do?"

On the radar, a world begins to flash and two blue symbols representing their friends appear as the smart Ed begins to think out a plan to get out of this situation. "Eddy, Ed, we're approaching a new world," he stated. "We can use this world to hide out until the Pirate Ship leaves us alone."

"OK, but what about the thing heading right towards us?" stated Eddy, reminding the boys about the incoming cannon round.

"We just need to outrun it," said Double D, tightening his grip on the controls.

"But we can't go any faster!" Ed pointed out.

"That doesn't mean that we can't push our luck on this… it's all in the matter of timing and placement."

All three Eds wait for the devastating blow to hit them as they continue to fly on towards the new world. With the large projectile now nearing the ship, Ed launches several of his Gravity rounds in hopes of buying the boys some time or getting some distance. It works, but it is proving to be a slow process, which is just enough to get away for only a few feet. Double D pushes ahead and got their ship out of range, which is good enough to have all three boys to let out a sigh of relief and watch the cannon fire explode.

However, they did not expect the powerful shockwave to rip through their ship and cause severe damage all over. The shock causes the Gummi ship's electronics to bug out and knock all three boys around, rocking them from the inside-out. The Pirate Ship uses this moment to its advantage by sneaking up on the battered Eds and chomp down using its metal jaw, but Eddy spots the Heartless ship coming and starts shooting at it. With the electronics flickering and the ship still capable of flight, Double D notices the world coming into view and steers them out of the way to prevent getting any further damage.

The new world consists of mostly water taking up the lower half and a wooden harbor city from a historical era rising up from this ocean. The world appears to be as dark as the E.V.O. Earth, with the rustic buildings being a dark shade and the water not looking as impressive and clear. And oddly, there appears to be an island made out of sugary sweets coming out from the bottom, but it looks out of reach for the Eds. The Pirate Ship tries to take yet another bite out of the thrusters, but the Eds begin to enter the world's atmosphere and start to lose the trail from the Heartless ship.

On board of the Pirate Ship, the Nobody Zip-fly walks up to the railing and watches the Gummi ship gets smaller and leave their vision. With a growing smile on his face, he turns to the Heartless crew and heads towards an opening. "You boys may think that this was just a simple meaningless attack," he said out loud, "but you three have let to learn that this was just only to lead me to my final target…"

OOO

With nothing but the vastness of the salty, grim ocean and the cloudy air stretching for miles, the battered _Midnight Hummer_ streaks through the clouds and slowly descends down to the murky waters below. With all of the electronics still out of commission and the ship rocking from the shockwave, a determined Double D has the motion set to get the struggling ship down to the water and allow the Gummi ship to glide across the waves. Viewing the world from underneath of their ship, the smart Ed watches as their ship goes under the water and gets a glimpse of a whole new world, unseen by the residents living on the surface.

There is a brief moment of silence, but the Ed catches a glimpse of a large octopus passing through the open space before him, along with some Heartless fish. Eddy emerges from his terminal in shock, quickly slamming down his door as he rushes over to the dashboard and talks to the pilot. "Double D, my place sprain a leak and is now filling up seawater!" the small boy panicked, rushing his sentence.

"All right Eddy, just relax," replied Double D, getting up from his seat and checking out the damage to the terminal. He reopens the hatch and peers down into the turret to find a small puddle at the bottom. "Well that doesn't look that bad right now, but we do need to get that patched," he said. "If we were to leave the ship with a large crack for a long time, your terminal isn't the only thing that is going to be flooded."

"So what if there are more cracks?"

"The ship has a chance of taking on more water and it will sink all of the way down to Davy Jones' locker."

"Can we get some duct tape to do the job?" the greedy Ed asked, holding out his hand.

"I don't think that duct tape is cut out for this situation. I remember hearing about this somewhere that if applying duct tape underwater will only weaken the adhesive and it won't stick for so long if applying dry."

"OK, but shouldn't duct tape fix just about everything? Maybe we can get a few buckets, bail the water out and get the duct tape on the crack."

"Yes, that does sound like a plan," the medium Ed mumbled. "There isn't that much water to worry about here, so patching shouldn't take that long."

Eddy takes a look around the cockpit for any buckets and finds a few to use, heading back over to his terminal and starts scooping out the slowly rising water. The two Eds start to question where they are going to toss the water since the bay door to the ship is also underwater and they do not want to add more trouble, plus they do not know if there is another hatch leading to the top in case if they are in an emergency. Ed emerges from his cramped terminal and sticks his head out like a gopher to watch his friends bugging out about the situation, so he heads back into his compartment to make a discovery.

"Ooh, ooh, I spy with my little eye an abandoned city!" the tall boy stated.

The two Eds in the main room start to wonder if Ed is talking about the same city from what they saw earlier. They try to go to Ed's terminal only for them to notice a hatch right above them. Eddy jumps onto Double D's shoulders, and the boy unlocks the hatch to open it up and reveal the grim sky right above him. He jumps up off of the smart Ed's shoulders and crawls out of the opening, getting up onto the top of the Gummi ship and got himself down to take a look out in front of him. He spies the city Ed is talking about, appearing to be only a mile away, and he reaches back down to pull Double D up to show him the city.

"I can't help it but get the feeling that somehow we have travelled back through time and ended up during the Victorian era," the smart Ed mumbled.

"What makes you say that?" asked Eddy.

"I don't know. I can just feel it, that's all," Double D replied.

The two boys on the outside head back into their ship and got themselves ready to go to the city. Double D heads to the controls and pushes down on the throttle, but he could not feel the ship moving at all. He tries again but with no success whatsoever. The smart Ed bangs his head onto the console in frustration, and then he picks himself up with some pain still throbbing to come up with a brilliant plan.

"Eddy, go get into your terminal, aim your guns away from the city and put it onto automatic fire, and make sure to use everything you have," the smart boy explained. "The same goes for Ed since he has a heavier weapon, so tell him on the way."

"And what will that do?" asked the greedy Ed.

"The recoil of both yours and Ed's barrels should provide us with enough force to push our ship across the water and get to the city in no time!"

The small Ed begins to think over the plan in his head, imagining how firing his Fire guns and Ed's Gravity cannon will will help them move forward. Once he establishes a connection, he states to his friend that he is a genius and bolts over to his wet terminal. Once inside, he rotates the barrels of his turrets to face in the opposite direction and he got the button pressed for continuous fire, and he grabs a bucket to dump out any water in his terminal. Thinking that Ed's cannon will fire the water out of the ship, the small Ed heads up to the tall boy's terminal and ask him to dispose of the water.

With the three cannons now firing in unison, the Eds can feel themselves moving, meaning they are finally getting to their destination. They pop out from the cockpit and walk out to watch their cannon barrels fire away as they slowly glide across the water. There are small and large shadows circling around the Gummi ship and Ed offers that can do some fishing, and the small Ed permits this. A cock back and the hat jumping down, Ed's head dives into the water and begins his search for any fish that he can grab.

He eventually pulls his wet head out from the water to report to his friends about his findings. "I found some really big puffy fish down there," the tall Ed stated.

"Are they good enough to eat?" asked Eddy, his stomach slightly growling.

"Nah, I believe they look like the monsters from _The Call from the Bottom of the Fish Tank_. They also have the same divers here as well… cool, we're in a sequel!"

"Interesting, there are some divers. They're probably looking for some sunken treasure or, as Ed said, working on that se—"

Before Double D can finish his sentence, a large splash and a towering spout of water disperses right beside of Ed, and a large, blue Heartless angler fish emerge from underneath. Launching off of the fish and jumping onto the top are green Heartless dressed for underwater travel, carrying a trident in and have a scuba pack on their backs. Double D thinks over on how to defeat these particular Heartless, knowing that he has Thunder as one of his spells. Equipping his Keyblade, he shoots out one single bolt to zap the two green Heartless to eliminate them. Ed takes the moment to perform Thundara, zapping the giant Heartless fish and destroying that as well.

Sparks, from the Thundara spell, jump across the top of the water and start crawling along the hull of the Gummi ship. The lights inside of the cockpit begin to flicker for a few seconds before turning off completely, and the ship jerks forward a bit from the short burst of the thrusters, which is telling the boys that the lightning is doing a positive effect on their Gummi ship. With a few more bursts out of the thrusters, the boys scoot across the ocean water to get ever so closer to the docks.

Finally the Ed boys got to their destination and they pull into one of the docks of the town. The ship loses its thrust and comes to a stop, and all three boys jump down onto the dock to find some stairs leading up to the city. "Hey, if you three don't mind, I like to stay behind," said Normadomus.

"Why do you ask?" questioned Double D.

"I got a few good reasons as to why, with the first one is to make some minor repairs to this ship," the hat replied. "Another reason is that if what you said is true, then the folks won't be pleased with seeing the tall boy as a warlock in this town."

"And how's that a bad thing?" asked Eddy.

"Eddy, a warlock is essentially a bad wizard," the smart Ed explained. "If Normadomus agrees with my thought about this being in the past, then some of the citizens living here will view Ed as that, and they'll take him away and lock him up for being a warlock!"

"_Ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-ha, to the Funny Farm _/_ where live is beautiful all of the time_," quoted Ed in an unusual tone, "_and I'll be happy to see those nice young men in their clean white coats _/_ they're coming to take me away, ha-ha!"_

Once the tall Ed is finish with his strange quote, there is a long and awkward silence among the boys, with both Eddy and Double D utterly shocked by what their friend just said. "Uh… Ed, we should _really_ talk about your choice of music when we get back home," said Double D, still disturbed.

With a firm nod, Ed tosses his hat up onto the top of the Gummi ship, leaving the wizard hat to inspect the ship and allow the boys to go explore the historical-looking city above. With a few seconds climb up the stairs, the Eds find themselves staring at a harbor town that looks to be the size of a small city. Buildings of typical houses are mixed in with fishing-themed buildings, which make sense due to the town being in the middle of the ocean, and there stands a towering lighthouse looming overhead of the smaller buildings below.

As the boys begin to make their way to the center, they notice a post sign sticking out to reveal the name of the oceanic town. "Welcome to Stormalong Harbor," Double D reads off.

"The cleanest harbor all around," read Eddy, looking over the second sign.

"No Littering," added Ed, finishing off the signs.

"Heh, Double D should live in this city after hearing that," the small Ed joked.

"It does, but I feel that this is not a very safe world," the smart Ed replied. "Sure everything looks nice and appears tidy, but I have done my research for this era and I _really_ don't want to catch am incurable disease here."

There is a moment of silence between the boys, trying to think about what Double D just said. Then Eddy decides to break his silence by looking out at the ocean. "Say, is it me or do those wave look hypnotizing?"

The small Ed points out at the murky ocean and forwards his friends to look out into the horizon. There, they can see the curvy waves gently, and slowly, rocking back and forth. The three boys move their way to the edge of the dock and drop down to sit along the edge, all to watch the slow rocking of the waves. The Eds cannot hear the sound of heavy footsteps right behind them, stopping only for a moment and continuing on before reaching the boys.

"Excuse men, but is that you ship down there?" a nasally voice ripped, terrifying the boys.

The Eds jump up from their seats and quickly spin around to notice a short, heavy woman glaring menacingly at them. She is in definition of a large woman when it comes to weight, with her face appearing tiny on her head, and the rest of her is hiding underneath a brown blouse. On top of her head is a wide brim hat kept up to reveal her face, and the boys can see some slight stubble on her chin.

"Are you or are you not the owners of that ship?" the woman asked in her nasally voice, pointing towards the _Midnight Hummer_.

"Uh… why yes, yes we are… madam," replied Double D, uncertain that this woman really is a woman.

"Then you three just earn yourselves a ticket for illegal parking in an unauthorized spot," the woman stated, handing the smart Ed a pink slip. "Also you three earn another ticket for dressing so strangely."

Eddy grabs the two pink slips and gives them a review on how much the Eds are going to pay the woman. "What the…! No way! There's no chance that we're going to afford these!" he shouted.

"I don't care! Unless you have a permit for that ship to park there, I suggest you either pay up or move it before I do."

"Please madam, we're just some random foreigners visiting from a very faraway land," explained Double D. "We don't have any ideas about your practices or your laws, and we're only here to explore your wonderful harbor."

The hag takes the moment to look over the Ed boys and their Gummi ship before ruling her decision. "… All right, you got me there," she said, taking back the pink slips. "But this doesn't mean that I don't have my eyes on you. Just watch yourselves…"

She gives the three the stink eye as she heads off further down the dock to continue on with her routine. The boys let out a sigh of relief, now knowing that they are not going to be paying the ridiculously high prices on those tickets, all just getting to a new world. The Eds focus their attention to the city before them, and they decide that they are going to look for whoever they are searching for first before finding the keyhole. Making sure that the hag is going to follow them, they turn around and find her back still facing them, so they can now go forward.

There is a small whistle coming from the side and the boys turn to notice a black speck heading right towards them. The speck turns out to be a cannonball and Eddy uses his shield to bounce the cannonball back at the cannon it came from. The Eds look out towards sea to find the ship that fired the cannonball was a Heartless in on itself, and some flying Heartless emerge from the failing ship. One set of those Heartless is comprised of a steampunk motif and some bat wings, while the others have a pirate look with purple wings.

Not wanting to get into a fight, the boys escape from the dock and head deep into the town in hopes of escaping the flying Heartless. However, some of those flying Heartless sail right above the town and search all over the streets and alleys in search for the boys. A few people roaming the streets took cover behind crates, barrels and doors as the Heartless scour the town, and the Eds begin to think out a plan that will take out these particular enemies.

"Got any ideas," asked Eddy, "because I'm spent."

"Well we could just go out and challenge those beings," said Double D, "but I'm a bit afraid of getting innocent people involve in our fight."

"Not to mention that scary lady," added Ed. "She scares the filling out of my doughnut."

"Gross," both Eddy and Double D replied at once.

"Well, since I can throw my shield around and return to me, I'll try to take care of those things before they call for backup," the small Ed explained.

"Sounds like a good plan," the medium Ed replied. "Once we clear these Heartless, we should go about and ask the locals about the missing children."

The boys slip behind a wall and Eddy catches a peep to notice one Heartless heading right towards them. The small Ed grabs hold of his shield and tosses around the corner to nail the Heartless, blowing it back and taking a few out along the way. When the shield returns to Eddy, Ed offers to light the shield on fire, only to help out take care of the Heartless. Doing so, the small Ed quickly releases his shield on the Heartless to burn all of them out of the skies.

"Eddy! Turn around quickly!" ordered Double D in a shriek.

The said Ed looks behind him to notice an appendance sticking out from a barrel and a small hole bearing two glowing, yellow eyes. Three more appendances emerge from the barrel and the container pushes itself away from the wall, keeping its beady yellow eyes on the Ed boys. Double D takes Joker's Wild and begins to strike, but more barrels jump in the way and knock him down onto the ground.

"What are those things?" questioned Eddy.

"By the look of them, they must be Heartless," groaned the smart Ed. "Question is how we not noticed these barrels here?"

"Allow me!" exclaimed Ed, aiming his staff right at the barrels and the others jump onto him, preventing him from using the spell he was planning on using.

"Ed, are you thinking on planning on using Fire?" Double D asked with Ed returning a nod. "Take a good look around you. This whole city can easily burn down if you don't know where your fireball is going to land!"

"But what about my shield and lighting it on fire?" questioned Eddy, noticing the logic.

"Your shield was easy to control and it was away from the buildings," the smart Ed explained. "If Ed were to perform that spell anywhere in this town, just one little flame is enough to burn this entire city down!"

"Then step out of the way! I got myself a plan," the greedy Ed stated, pushing Double D aside.

The small Ed grabs a hold of Ed's jacket and promptly lifts the heavy boy over his head, grinning widely as the Heartless watch in confusion. Shortly, Eddy jumps up and slams Ed down hard into the dock, causing the barrels to either disappear on contact or disappears from the shockwave of the attack. Eddy lifts Ed's head from the boards and places the tall Ed back on his feet, leaving the boy to grin brightly as the boys leave the alley to continue their search.

As soon they step out, they hear the sound of screaming coming down the way, and the shouts sound very familiar to the boys. They hurry to the source of the screams to notice a group of Heartless, dressed in a red and yellow pirate outfit and carrying a cartoonish sword with a red face, chase two children away from the boys. Eddy begins to feel squeamish and Ed starts to shake his knees as Double D lets out a sigh and chases the Heartless down. He preps his Keyblade and starts to perform Rush Arcane on the Heartless, quickly striking through the numbers to only leave one left.

The children continue to run on ahead as the pirate Heartless stops in its track to fight the Ed boys. Hissing at the sight of the Keyblade, the Heartless takes its sword and swings it at Double D, only for Ed to use his staff to block the attack. He then raises the butt of the staff to hit the jaw of the Heartless and blowing it back, allowing Eddy to toss his shield and cut the Pirate right down the middle. Now done with the Heartless, the Ed boys let out a sigh of relief, knowing that they will not be taking on any Heartless anytime soon… only to get a sudden wake-up call.

"Hey Ed, what the heck are you doing here?" screamed a girl's voice. "If you're the one behind all of this, I'm telling Mom and Dad about what you just did!"

Both Eddy and Ed freeze in place at the sound of that scream as the three Eds look over to the approaching two children. The first one is a redhead girl, appearing very feisty and angry at the sight of the boys, and the one following right behind her is a scared, little boy shaking like a leaf. The girl is wearing a pink tank-top, blue pants, black shoes and some jewelry, while the boy is wearing a light blue turtleneck, white pants, a black belt holding up his pants, and a ridiculous retainer to help his unusually disfigured teeth.

"Well, is anyone going to tell us how the heck we got here, and why hasn't anyone came to get us?" the girl asked rudely, speaking very loudly to cause people to peek out of their homes.

Eddy stares blankly at the two children before him, his limbs losing all sensation and dangly very loosely. He recalls remembering saying something some time ago and now here he is, on his knees and eyes watering up, all wanting to not needing to see the two people he wish not to see ever again. But here they are before them and he can feel a weird sensation taking him over.

"… _WHY_?" the small Ed bawled.

OOO

Using all of his strength he can muster to lift the terminal door open, the wizard hat Normadomus skillfully uses his magic spells in aiding him and the boys to get off of this ocean world. The hat starts off by using Gravitaga to fill the entire ship in order to allow him to fly all around, Aeroga to help push him in the right direction in chase he strays off course. Of course, he moves about using his effective Blizzard in small bursts to prevent any ice spots forming on places he does not want to work on.

The wizard hat has his zipper mouth widely open to allow him to grip onto the handle of the bucket, and he dives down into Eddy's terminal to scoop out any excess water before he can begin his work. Dumping out only two buckets of water through an Aeroga aiming at the exit, Normadomus begins to check around the ground for the crack causing one of the leaks. Once finding it under the control panel, the wizard performs a Blizzara to cover the crack and seal off any water from getting in, along with freezing the water in the crack to add support.

Once done, Normadomus leaps out of the terminal and begins to search around the cockpit and bridge to see where other leaks may be. Deciding on a plan, he jumps around the winds to check all around the deck, checking in-between corners and under panels to see where these hidden cracks are. Only finding a few, he patches those cracks with his Blizzara to keep more water from seeping in.

Just as he is finish, there is a sudden rocking coming from the outside and the hat floats over to the exit to see what the cause of the rocking is. From the source of the impact, it was from the roof, and the hat knows well that the Ed boys have yet to accomplish their task in less than twenty minutes. Shooting out from the cockpit, the wizard notices the cause of the rocking and he immediately launches a Blizzaga to freeze the intruder, but the person steps out of the way to prevent freezing up.

The hat plops down onto the ground and begins to think up a plan to prevent from getting killed, only for the person to stop right in front of the hat. "What exactly gives you the rights to be here?" Normadomus asked.

The person, turning out to be Zip-fly, squats down and peers right at the wizard, not making any advances to strike him. "Don't worry Wizard, I'm not here to kill you," the Nobody replied. "Even if this state, you have the power to kill me despite the lack of any true movement."

"Well I thank you for the compliment, but you're working for Father," Normadomus grunted. "You do realize that you're collecting innocent people for a lost cause."

"Indeed I do. The path to Kingdom Hearts is impossible without a certain Keyblade, its existence's currently a myth, and we made Father believed that gaining access to the Kingdom is with any Keyblade."

"But you're kidnapping innocent people! I know you Nobodies don't feel emotions, but this is an immoral deed!"

"Yes it is, but do you think there is another reason for me, Prankster, Blitzer and Father going around kidnapping people?" Zip-fly questioned with Normadomus shaking his head no. "Prankster and I have a secret goal from Father and we don't want to jeopardize our mission here unless we want to expose ourselves to him."

"Who?" asked the wizard.

"Jib, the Destroyer. He was the one that was said to the creation of us, but that fact is nothing but a myth. In fact, it is Jib that is responsible for creating Blitzer but not me or Prankster. We lost our memories upon arriving and somehow rounded up being with Blitzer and he told us that lie on how we were created by that monster!"

"So Jib is not your true father?" Normadomus asked. "If that's true, then who is it?"

"I have no clue. My past is in a fog, and all I know is that I and Prankster are in danger because of that man, along with his master. If the Destroyer found out about our intentions, he will surely kill us or unleash his master down upon this universe."

"Wow, I never thought you were like this," the hat said depressingly. "But still, you continue to live on and work for Father in hopes of achieving his goals of reaching Kingdom Hearts. What exactly is going to happen to you if he reaches his goal or if Jib finds you?"

"It's obvious that I'll allow Father and the boy fall to the power of Kingdom Hearts and I'll go on to meet with Prankster," answered Zip-fly. "As for Jib… it's unclear on what I'll do. Father doesn't possess the power to beat him, let alone having me by his side, and I really doubt having the Keybearer with us will do anything."

"Well listen here Nobody, even if the boys don't appear to be capable of fighting Jib by themselves, they have proven themselves to even come close to taking on an Unversed such as him."

"Heh, such confidence," the masked boy smirked. "That's just the kind of encouragement you need to use on the Ed boys if you want to take on Father. Jib is another question, but who's to say that they'll even take me on?"

"I can see that happening in the near future," Normadomus muttered.

"Well, I better be taking my leave. Note that you should never mention this little conversation to the boys, or otherwise I have the liberty of slicing you down to the strings making you up."

"Before you go, I must ask you some questions."

"I don't have time for multiple questions," the Nobody answered. "Choose only one and speak it fast."

Normadomus begins to think over the three questions that he wants to ask. He really wants to ask about the identity of this mysterious master of Jib's, but the Nobody might not give a true response. "So are you close in completing your search for the Pure Hearted?" the hat asked, deciding on that particular question.

The Nobody stares out at the vast ocean with his back turn against the wizard hat. The wind is blowing gently against the tail of his jacket, allowing Zip-fly to feel the salty breeze against his body as he calculates his answer. "The last boy lies within a whale in these very waters," he answered. "I will not be in town to bother you in your quest, so you are free to continue one in getting back to your home."

A black portal opens up right next to Zip-fly and he begins to step into it, but stops to leave this warning to Normadomus. "Before I go, there lies a devastating Heartless capable of splitting this town in half. If you want to leave this world, join the Eds and aid them against this threat."

The white boy steps through the portal and the darkness fades away, leaving Normadomus to quickly think about what to do next. Since he is done with the repair job on the cracks but not the circuits, and now there is a Heartless that the boys can not handle, which left him to only jump and head for the edge of the ship. Looking down, he leaps off and lands onto the dry dock as the wizard lets out one long sigh. Knowing that he has a long climb up to the upper levels, he begins to jump and starts his search for the Ed boys.

OOO

Inside of a large barrel-shaped building offering up sugary treats for customers, Eddy has his failed body draping over the counter, slowly letting out muffled cries as a shaking Ed is carefully eyeing his neighbor. Double D is unluckily enough to be trap between two ticking time bombs, with one possessing a short fuse and another one a questionable demeanor that will trigger his internal rage. The girl is drinking out of a beer glass filled to the brim with candies, as the boy sitting on the opposite of Double D, and the Eds are not in the mood to have any candy.

Behind the counter is the owner of this establishment, with the man appearing skinny as Rolf but has a more bubbly personality. With a traditional bartender outfit of a peppermint-colored striped dress shirt, an apron, red bands on his forearms, brown pants, black shoes, and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses, the brunette lets out a whistle from his lips as he polishes one of his beer glasses. Once he is done, he places the glass under a dispenser and turns to the Eds in hope of getting some business out of them.

"Now are you sure you boys don't want a drink?" he asked. "I can give you one of my special Candied Island drinks if you need to perk yourselves up."

"Uh, no thank you," Double D politely responded. "Though I do like to have whatever Jimmy and Sarah are having, and maybe one for my friend lying on your counter."

"Hmm, I'm not sure that'll do the trick," the bartender commented. "If you want to get him back on his feet, just give him one of these red-hots."

The man holds up a small candy sphere wrapped in its wrapper, glistening a sinister red as he presents it to Double D. The Ed unwraps the candy and can feel some of the candy's cinnamon, and other hidden, spices seeping out of its shell. He is reluctant to feed it to Eddy in fears of causing an unstoppable wrath, but he quickly remembers that the girl sitting next to him will bring the boy back to earth. Deciding on giving the candy to Ed, the tall boy picks the sad Ed's head up and plops the candy into his mouth, moving his mouth to allow him to chew the candy up.

As the heat of the candy begins to fill Eddy's mouth, the boy's eyes shrink and his face begins to tightens, struggling to handle the intense heat. Ed lets his grip go as Eddy unleashes a stream of fire from his mouth, scaring everyone in the business. The bartender quickly reacts by grabbing a bottle of maple syrup and he plants the bottle into Eddy's mouth, cutting the fire as the sticky substance pours down the boy's throat. Once emptying the bottle, the bartender pulls the bottle out and Eddy lets out a shiver in response to the amount of sugar entering his body.

"That must be some kind of sugar rush," muttered Double D.

"I wish to breathe fire like that," Ed muttered.

"All right, I think you five had enough here," the bartender stated. "It's time for you to pay up and leave so I can attend to my other customers."

"How much do we have to pay you?" the girl asked.

"100,800 Munny."

There is silence within the barrel, before all hell broke loose. The little girl named Sarah unleashes her fury as she knows they cannot afford the extremely large price on something as simple as three cups of candy, one red-hot and a bottle of maple syrup. Ed escapes the barrel with Eddy, the boy named Jimmy, and Double D in tow as Sarah emerges from the building with one piece of peppermint candy in hand and a collection of groans coming from inside. The Eds check inside to find the whole place in ruins, with stands lifted out of their bolts, customers sprawled all over and the owner hanging up on one of the hooks hanging up on a shelf.

"Uh Sarah, don't you think that's a little overkill?" Jimmy nervously asked.

"Yeah, but since when did candy be that expensive?" the redhead replied. "I don't understand the whole Munny thing this place has."

"Believe us Sarah, we're still trying to figure that out ourselves," answered Double D.

"Great, so now that we got our fill on candy, can we leave now?" whined Eddy. "The sooner we leave this place, the sooner we drop the brats off in Traverse Town."

"Not yet Eddy," the smart Ed replied, leading to Eddy and Sarah letting out an irritated groan. "We still need to find the keyhole to this world and then we'll be taking our leave."

"But Double D, I don't want to hang out with Sarah all day!" Ed cried.

"And I don't want to hang with you losers," the said girl snapped. "I want to get out of this miserable place and head home!"

"Will you people just relax?" snapped the smart Ed. "Sarah, please understand that going home is currently not an option at the moment. For one reason, our world is no longer in existences and destroyed from the Heartless, and two we can't exactly leave this world without our Gummi ship being fixed."

"We should have brought Shovel-chin with us," said Eddy. "He could have our ship back in prime condition, but we decided on leaving him back in Traverse Town."

"We've decided upon leaving the others in Traverse Town due to the others only to slow us down and leave them vulnerable to the Heartless. Though having only one of them will prove to be a benefit in the long run, but we are getting close to the end of this hunt of ours."

"So is there anything we can do for you?" asked Jimmy. "We would like to be some kind of service to you."

"Can you go get my hat for me?" Ed pitched, asking very quickly and pointing to his head.

"Ed, you don't wear hats," Sarah deadpans.

"You don't quite understand that this hat Ed possesses is quite a benefit to our journey," said Double D. "If you two can go get him, he should provide protection against any Heartless along your way."

Now with a grin on his face, Eddy jumps behind Jimmy and Sarah and shoves them off to get them to go retrieve Ed's hat and to get away from the boys. Once they are gone, the small Ed lets out a sigh before getting a stink eye from Double D, obviously not pleased with Eddy shoving the two younger children off. Ed is mixed with relief and worry as he knows his sister is not joining them, but she is going off into a town infested with Heartless waiting to eat their hearts.

Once assuring that the two are going to be safe, the Eds begin to head back into town in their search for the keyhole, along with the chance to find a Pure Hearted and protect them from getting capture by Zip-fly. There is a moment of a white blur zipping right over head of them, but the boys drop the idea of this blur being the Nobody in question. Instead, there is a shadow lurking behind them and Ed whips around to smack a Shadow down, using the tip of his staff to knock the Heartless down.

Once the Shadow disappears into the cracks, more Heartless begin to pop up, all itching for a fight. People dive into their homes as the Ed boys draw out their weapons and begin to fight. Double D heads low as Eddy jumps up to take care of the Heartless in the sky, as Ed carefully uses his staff to prevent using any magic that may cause a spark and set fire to the city. However, one single ember from the tip ignites one Heartless and burns it down to prevent it from striking ever again.

"Hey Ed, I thought Double D said not to use Fire," stated Eddy.

"I'm sorry!" the tall Ed pleaded. "Ed didn't mean to use Fire on purpose!"

"Well just as long as we are careful about using any magic that may destroy this city," said Double D, blocking with his Keyblade. "Until we find the keyhole to this world, we just can't…"

"Hey guys, I think I found something!" stated Ed, rushing over to where he found the object he spotted.

The other two Eds stop to wonder where their friend is running off to, only to remember the Heartless that are right behind them. Double D casts Blizzard and knocks them back, giving the boys space as they rush over to where Ed is and check out what caught his attention. They head towards a rather unique plaque coming up from the ground, reading a strange language the boys have never seen before, and right below the plaque is a blue bag with a card attach to it. Double D lifts the bag up, feeling the heavy weight, and hands the bag over to Ed as he takes the card and reads it off.

"_Dear Ed Boys,_

"_Sorry that we can't meet you on this journey at this point, but we know that you three are after us. In your journey, you three have experienced robots of my future designs, several creatures of darkness and countless villains. But now you're going to be going up against a much bigger threat in your quest and eventually the creation of that threat in the near future._

"_In short, we want to give you boys some gifts at this point in your mission. They might not be of use at this point, but eventually they will, especially once this particular journey ends. There are a few that will help you in the next world and some elsewhere, but please do not disclose this as junk. We thank you for doing all that you can in your search for us, but we rather not speak to you directly as of now. We will speak at another time_."

The card is signed by two signatures, one that is sloppy and hard to read, while the other is clean, but is still hard to read. These two signatures made the Eds think that the people who left this gift are the kings and they are giving their hands in this mission of their, and also appearing slightly close. The boys start to discuss how the white blur they saw earlier must be one of the kings dropping off the gift, as they turn their attention down at the plaque itself to see what the message reads. The letters are in Japanese kanji, which is making all three boys scratch their heads in confusion as they try to decipher the message.

"You got any idea on what this reads?" asked Eddy.

"I don't know Eddy," replied Double D. "Perhaps the bag may have some answers to this little riddle."

Ed is already digging through the bag, pulling out three headbands with jewels on them, a left-handed leather glove, two sunglasses lenses, some batteries, a few gadgets meant to fix the _Midnight Hummer_, and a charm unlike the boys have seen before. Double D takes the single glove and starts to wonder why there is only one glove in the bag as he starts to feel the thick-padded palm, and Eddy growls on how there is some jewelry in the bag and nothing really useful that the boys can use on their journey, only before noticing the lenses match up to his goggles. Ed lets out a whine to how he did not receive anything useful, but he starts to notice something strange about the plaque.

"Uh guys, do these things usually change their message?" he asked, prompting the other two to focus on the plaque.

"No Ed, these plaques are using set in stone," explained the smart Ed. "There is no way that this plaque could have… Wait a minute. This message is clearly understandable now… Gentlemen, we need to get away now!"

"Why, what's the rush?" asked Eddy.

"Because the building right before you isn't your typical innocent building!" stated Double D.

The smart Ed starts to push back on his friends to get them away from the building, as they can feel the ground shaking rather steadily. The three look up to notice some gravel chipping off of the building, which appears to be a stone tower, and some of the stones sliding out. Right before them, the plaque turns to dust and blows off in the wind as more debris chips off of the tower to reveal its true form. Once again the Eds are stricken with fear as stones start popping out and begin rotating around to help lift the massive tower off of its foundation.

"What are the kings' thinking?" stated Eddy. "Are they trying to kill us or something?"

"I don't believe that it was their intention of killing us with a Heartless, Eddy!" Double D quickly replied.

"Hey boys, it looks like I made it," called out a familiar voice.

The Eds turn around to find Ed's hat hopping right up to them, though without the accompaniment of Sarah and Jimmy. Once the wizard hat got up to the boys, he starts huffing from all of the jumping he did to get to the boys, as Ed picks his hat up to return him to his usual spot. "Normadomus, where are Sarah and Jimmy?" the smart Ed asked.

"Them? I passed them on the way to see you, telling them to head for the Gummi ship," the hat replied. "I'm only here to warn you three about a dangerous Heartless lurking nearby."

"Well thanks for the newsflash," the greedy Ed sarcastically remarked. "It turns out that we found the Heartless before you came here."

Normadomus shimmies around to look up at the rising tower that is slowly turning into a Heartless. The zipper comes undone as more features begin to shape the tower, along with some Heartless flying around with the intentions of aiding its master. Several people cower inside of their homes and other buildings as the giant Heartless finally emerges from the building and lets out a loud and painstaking roar. Several black, spiked, slender arms spring out from the core of the tower as the head lowers itself to reveal an ant-like appearing, just right above a circling neck made out of stones.

"Huh, I never seen this Heartless before," the wizard hat explained casually.

"Hat, aren't you scared?" Ed stated.

"Oh I am, but as a man who studies the Heartless, you can't help but wonder about new discoveries."

"This isn't the time to research the thing!" Eddy blurted. "We need to get rid of that thing and get the heck out of here before that thing has the chance to eat us!"

Before the Eds can react, some of the smaller Heartless dive down to start their assault on the boys, with a few flying pirate ships aiming their cannons down at them. The boys split up and dive behind shelter, quickly delivering blows to any Heartless that got close to them. A few cannonballs slam through the ground, erupting with splinters flying all over the place, and the boys use whatever they have to protect themselves from the sharp splinters. One flying Heartless decides to take a splinter out of the air and use that as a weapon, diving down at Ed, and Normadomus assists the boy by freezing the Heartless and causing the creature to shatter on impact.

The giant Heartless begins to move away from the battle that is taking place, which is prompting the Eds to take measure to prevent the giant from terrorizing the town. As the boys try to follow the creature, skinny and spike-free versions of the claw arms emerge from the ground, staring out at the Eds with their singular eyes, and they bite down at the boys in hopes of doing damage. The three Eds jump back from the biting Heartless and try to knock them down, cutting through the numbers and opening up a path for them.

"Sheesh, there's a lot more Heartless than we ever fought before," commented the small Ed.

"True," Double D responded. "It seems this town attracts a lot more Heartless than any other worlds we visited, which is kind of making up for the lack of Heartless back at the E.V.O. Earth."

"Still, with these Tentaclaws appearing, this new Heartless must be wanting to collect people for whatever scheme it is coming up with," Normadomus thought out loud, commenting on the claw-like Heartless attacking them.

The Eds continue to cut through the numbers of Heartless attacking them when they finally reached the giant Heartless. A few pirate ships emerge from behind and Eddy deals with them by blocking the cannon fire and deflecting them back at the Heartless. Ed and Double D respectively use their attacks in hopes of damaging the giant, but Double D clearly sees that nothing is making a scratch on the Heartless' thick armor. The three are going with this plan with the small Ed taking care of any smaller Heartless, while the other two try to do any sort of damage to the giant.

A few Tentaclaws emerge from the ground in hopes of grabbing onto the Eds, and one of them successfully grabs onto Ed, dragging him inside of the Heartless and out of view. The others stop in their tracks and start to beat up the Heartless, missing only the large bulge that is Ed. The bulge disappears into the ground and Double D cuts through to find there is no hope to retrieve their friend. However, they notice that the giant Heartless is feeling quite shivery from an unknown source, only for a green blob to fly out from the creature's backside.

The two Eds are disgusted to find Ed coming out through the method he used, but relieved that he is all right. The heavy Ed lands right behind the boys, strangely knocking out a pirate Heartless in the process, and he quickly recovers from his fall as he rejoins his friends in their fight against the giant. The Heartless calms down as it continues to fly on, looking all around for any victims, as the Eds continue to follow the Heartless right behind. The ground starts to rise up for the boys, allowing them to get close to the Heartless, and they jump up onto some of the flying pirate ships to use as a boost.

Once in the air, all three Eds begin to attack the stone Heartless with their weapons. Eddy is quickly throwing his shield in rapid succession, while Ed is using all of his magic spells, except Terra, and Double D switching between normal strikes and magic spells. Somehow they are doing some damage, but it is very little, and the boys start to fall back down to the ground. Once on the ground, the Eds continue to chase after the Heartless, with all three using their long-range attacks to help destroy the creature.

The stone Heartless finally decides to stop and begins to flip around to reveal the front half to the boys. The giant is looking down on the Eds with a hungry look on its face, with several of its claws anxious to reach down and grab the boys, as the Eds come to a stop and look up at the Heartless. It is clear that this stone Heartless is unlike they have faced before, with its look appearing to be a fusion of two powerful Heartless. The stone giant lets out another roar as claws leap out to snatch the boys up.

An idea pops into Eddy's head and a smile forms on his face as he and his friends dodge the claws. The Eds quickly knock the claws back while taking out a few as the small Ed dives for an opening and calls out for his friends. As all three Eds stand out in the open, the Heartless starts to wonder what the boys are planning as Eddy grabs onto Double D's and Ed's hat and drops his shield down on the ground. Getting onto his shield, the Ed starts to spin around, slowly swinging his friends around to gain some speed.

"Eddy, please stop this spinning this instance!" ordered Double D, looking slightly ill. "I think I'm going to be sick!"

"You spin me right round like a record, Eddy!" shouted Ed.

"Ed, you're already spun," mocked Eddy, watching the world around him become more blurry.

The speed of the small Ed increases steadily before reaching the maximum speed he can reach, in which the three boys are forming a rather strange object with the speed Eddy is going at. Double D's knuckles are turning white from him gripping onto his cap and Ed is laughing at the top of his lungs as Eddy tries to adjust his eyes onto the towering Heartless. Once he spies the Heartless through the blur, the greedy Ed loosens his grip on Ed and he flings the heavy Ed up high at the creature's face, only to create a giant hole in the Heartless' upper half.

"Eat on that, Rida!" stated Eddy, calling out to some random person.

The balance betweens to fall apart as the Eds start to lose speed and the opportunity to strike at full throttle. Taking this moment, Eddy flings Double D and the boy frees his hands as he flies up to the Heartless and starts panicking. Remembering that he has the Keyblade, the Ed draws his weapon out and starts spinning, getting a spark from Thunder going to create a spiraling lightning ball. Diving through the crater Ed made, the falling Ed distributes several bolts of lightning to create severe damage to the inside of the Heartless. Despite being made out of stone, the Heartless is clearly hurting from both attacks.

Eddy spins to a stop and looks up to find his friends falling out from the rear of the stone Heartless. Once out, Ed launches Thundara up at the Heartless, adding on more damage as the boys land back on the ground and watch the Heartless weave in pain. The spiked claws on the stone tower reach out and start grabbing onto the roofs of buildings, peeling each of them off as the Heartless chunks the roofs down on the boys. The Eds dodge the large roofs, by mere inches, and a few of the roofs are destroyed by colliding with the shield-like Reflectaga.

Double D checks the stone Heartless' health to find it dropped several levels, but still has enough energy to continue fighting. The tower begins to move and aims for the opposite end of the dock, meaning the Eds are going to climb up to fight the Heartless. The boys begin their trek back down the hill, hopping up onto Heartless appearing out of nowhere, all while dealing with those Heartless and the one right above them. There are a few Tentaclaws jumping out to bring the Eds down, but all three cut through the black claws to prevent being gobbled up by the giant.

On the other end at the dock holding the slightly fixed _Midnight Hummer_, Sarah is up on top of the ship and reaching down to lift her friend up to the top. As Jimmy rounds the edge, the two children hear the roar of the stone Heartless, and they notice that the creature is getting closer to them. "Holy mackerel, look at the size of that monstrosity!" stated Sarah.

"Are the Eds really fighting that thing?" Jimmy asked, sounding worried. "I sure hope they are all right fighting such a being."

"Knowing my stupid brother and his friends, they have a good chance of defending for themselves…"

Back at the fight, Eddy and Double D clear through the number of Heartless as Ed uses his magic to take down the giant tower. Several pirate Heartless try to take on the Eds but they fail, just like the Tentaclaws that sneak up from behind, only to be sliced down by Eddy's shield. The stone tower's health is slowly decreasing as Ed and Normadomus use their magic on one particular spot on the Heartless, only to take a moment to slay a few stray Heartless with the staff, as the Eds begin to think about how to take the giant tower down.

"So Sockhead, what exactly are we going to do about that thing?" asked Eddy. "If we don't do something about that thing…"

"It's not like I haven't figured the consequences this far in the game," the smart Ed replied. "If that Heartless is capable of swallowing Ed up, it will be a disaster if that Heartless were to escape the city and plague not only this world, but the entire universe!"

"Well we need to decide on something before this thing heads out to sea! Do something Double D!"

Finally deciding on how to defeat the Heartless, Double D breaks away from the others as he heads down an alley to find a way up onto the rooftop. Eddy and Ed are left to fight incoming pirate ships, flying Heartless, some barrels and Tentaclaws, as the two boys struggle to get through the masses. Double D is leaping across the rooftops, Keyblade in hand, as he keeps his eyes on the stone Heartless in hopes of finally a weak spot. Noticing his moment to strike, white light gathers on the Keyblade's shaft, and the Ed leaps off of the building to start his attack.

As the light continues to gather, the Ed aims his weapon at the edge of the hole Ed made earlier. Once he gathered all that he needed, Double D launches his attack at the hole, knocking him back and down to the ground. The Light spell rides against the side of the tower before taking a curve to the inside of the Heartless to travel inside of it. Disappearing into the darkness of the Heartless, the spell fades before exploding inside of the tower, causing the Heartless to rupture severally and shutter from the explosion. As the creature begins to settle, the stones holding the creature together begin to break down and fall out of their slots.

The Eds stop in their tracks as they watch the Heartless begin to fall apart right before their eyes. The other Heartless around them begin to slip into the darkness as stones start falling from the tower and rain down on the town. The boys let out a cheer as the Heartless flies up and splits into two, revealing its gigantic heart. Other residents emerge from their homes to notice the victory that the Eds have claim, and they all join in on the celebration as they know the Heartless will not be a threat to their peaceful town.

Only then for that celebration to be cut short by the raining stones hitting through their homes and streets.

The Eds find themselves surrounded by angry residents, easily upset by how they caused severe damage to their town despite how they are not the true cause of this damage. The three begin to take a few steps back before making a break for it, running as fast as they can as they head back for the Gummi ship. The crowd forms into an angry mob as they grab onto pitchforks and torches, as the mob got right behind the Eds and chase them out of their town.

All three Eds head down the stairs to reach their ships and all three jump up to get inside of their ship. Sealing the lid and quickly getting to work on the remaining repairs, using their new tools to fix the electronics and other cracks, as the boys can hear the angry mob getting closer to their ship. Double D checks to see if the engines can start and once he can feel the ship come to life, along with scaring the mob outside, the Ed quickly got the ship out of the water and up into the air to get the children out of this dysfunctional world. As the ship begins to head for the outer atmosphere, Eddy and Ed notice a light blue whale outside in the water, with a blur of a man standing on top of the whale.

The _Midnight Hummer_ breaks through the atmosphere and speeds away from the world that is right behind them without suffering seriously damage to their ship. The other Eds are busy fixing up their ship using the tools they acquired to repair any damage they miss before lift-off, slowly fixing all of the electronics as the two guests are resting up in the lounge.

"Hey Double D, did we get the keyhole back there?" asked Eddy, wondering if the boys did get the item.

"I did Eddy, but it happened so fast," replied the said Ed. "The keyhole was right outside of that barrel building where we ate at, and the Keyblade reacted as we passed the building."

"Well that's a good thing," the small Ed added. "It would suck if we have to go back there to go seal that hole."

"But what about the Pure Hearted?" asked Ed.

"That we may never know," the medium Ed responded. "Whether or not we can save the Pure Hearted is upon if Zip-fly captured this person or not."

There is some silence between the boys as they continue to head deeper into space as they breathe a sigh of relief as they find no signs of the Pirate Ship. Eddy and Ed continue their repair job as Double D notices the radar bleeping a very faint signal for their final neighbor, Jonny, and he turns the ship around to head in the direction of that signal.

"You know, maybe we should get a ship made out of duct tape," said the small Ed.

"I like to see that," said the smart Ed acceptingly.

"I'll work on it!" proclaimed Ed. "… Where's the tape?"

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:  
_Tilt-Ed A-Round_ – A combination Ed move that allows Eddy to spin around on his shield and grab a hold of both Ed and Double D, using them as bats as he spins around like a top (or a record).

OOO

How many of you want to see the Mythbusters make that airplane or spaceship out of duct tape? Any offers?

Yeah, you should know that I only picked these worlds for the children based on their personalities, see how well they react to certain environments and also torture some of them. If you believe that Sarah and Jimmy shouldn't be here, then it seems much like a waste on my part since I'm now down to Jonny. Still, having the two here to get their minds freak out from the amount of Nightmare Fuel in this show.

So now I am done with the Pure Hearted. That just leaves me getting to Hollow Bastion and then an epic showdown of all time! But of course I still have one more world before we even touch on Hollow Bastion and I can assure you that the world will be much different than what we have experienced before. And I don't care if I'm not original on this chapter; it's just as long as I make an entertaining story and please the lot of you that I am working very hard on this story.

And I like to say that after listening to "You Spin My Head Right Round" and "Right Round" over and over again… it's a safe bet that "YSMHRR" is my better favorite. Not only did I get a shout-out based off of that song, but I got a take-that at Flo Rida's failed attempt of making a good song. Seriously, do any of those lyrics make any sense in that song of his?

You know, much like in _358/2 Days_, the Nobody aren't exactly the evil guys as only a bunch of confused people seeking answers (except for a few but we all know how that turned out). I'm not doing anything different with Zip-fly but do note that I started him out as a blank slate and an evil person without a goal. I figure that over time we begin to peel back on our characters and expose them for who they truly are, and maybe when I do my next _Kingdom Hearts_ story (not the "sequel" to this), maybe I can show you all the true natures of Prankster, Zip-fly and Blitzer while giving them a more in-depth backstory. But as for now, Zip-fly will continue working for Father until… well, when I decide to be done with him.

And before I go… Brick. And also that Heartless the Eds fought is a mixture of a Antlion and a Leechgrave.

So once again I like for you all to review, thank you very much. The next chapter will be the last of the cartoon shows and it's one of my current favorites. Plus it's being produced by the man responsible for the creation of the Golden Age.


	20. Act III, Ch 20: Land of Ooo

Hey, hey, welcome to the three-fourths mark in this act and the very last show that I am going to be adding to this story. By now we have gone through the past shows and walk along some kind of timeline, visiting shows that were once part of our favorite channel before disappearing from the line-up, and now coming up to some shows that are on the air now in this modern time.

And now I am deciding to stop here for the new shows, since a few of them are good to work with for the whole _Kingdom Hearts_ universe, but I know there's one acid-tripped show that will never deserved even a take-that from me. Yeah, if a show is that bad to not even get something bad about them, then it is _**THAT**_ bad. But I digress on that, since I didn't think about that show when I was working on this, since that show didn't even exist!

So, let's begin this very last show world and be on our way!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty – The Grand Land of Ooo

OOO

A new world is now upon the Ed boys after traveling through space without fighting a single thing. The world they are coming to is an unusual mash-up of different areas, with one looking like a sugary kingdom, another being a frozen region, a vast lush green base, and a tall willow tree. There is also a strange chunk of the world missing, as if some thing happened to collide with the world and ripped that part of the world off, leaving behind a massive crater and a hollowed-out center. Double D is a bit baffled by this idea on how a world can be hollow, but he is not going to question on the idea as he enters the world's atmosphere.

The Gummi ship is sailing high above the lush green sea of grass that makes up the section of land the boys are going to be visiting. Ed looks out to notice the icy mountain range lingering in the distance, standing tall and frozen as they disappear from view and left the boy wondering what lives in that frozen place. As the ship continues to travel, the boys spy a rainbow right outside, prompting all three Eds and the two children in the lounge to look through their windows to notice the wavy spectrum that is flying right next to them.

Double D spots out that the rainbow has a face and two legs sticking out, along with a flowing blonde mane and a single white horn. The rainbow looks back and it gives a friendly wave to the Eds, all before diving down into a kingdom built on sugary treats and guarded by large gumball machines blowing bubbles. The medium avoids the city by turning to the left and the ship starts to lower itself down to an abandoned field. Lowering the landing gears, the _Midnight Hummer_ comes to a complete stop and the door opens up for the Eds to walk out.

"Hey, we want to come along," stated Sarah.

"No way pipsqueak," barked Eddy. "We're not going to be toting you two along on this journey and we're not going to get you two caught by any locals or Heartless."

"But what about that candy kingdom that we saw on the way here?" asked Jimmy. "Surely you three can take us over there?"

"Ed…"

Taking Eddy's order, the tall Ed walks up to the door and forces it shut, closing Sarah and Jimmy inside as both he and Eddy let out a sigh of relief. "You're going to make a great father Eddy," Double D sarcastically remarked.

"Hey, it beats having them wandering about and getting themselves killed," the small Ed protested.

"If anything were to happen to Sarah, I'll be in big trouble!" Ed stated loudly.

"Well the good news is that they aren't exactly going anywhere anytime soon," the smart Ed mumbled. "Now then, shall we begin our search for Jonny, seal the keyhole and be on our way?"

Just as Eddy opens his mouth to speak, he receives a foot in his face and he is blown back into the hull of the Gummi ship. Ed tries to rush over but he got hit in the back by a large fist. With both Eds down, Double D draws out his Keyblade and prepares to fight whoever beaten his friends, only to hear a cry coming from above. The Ed raises his Keyblade in defense as he takes a sword blow from a boy falling from the sky. Double D skids back from the blow as he takes notice of the boy in front of him and a dog standing next to him.

The boy is about the same age as the Eds, maybe a year older, and he looks like he has been through some rough times, but has a positive outlook. He is wearing a light blue shirt and some blue pants, along with some black shoes and is carrying a round green backpack on his back. In his hand is a very unique sword with a cream-colored double-edged blade and a crafted wooden handle that has a jewel embedded in it. The boy is also wearing a white hood that resembles like a bear's head, and only his face is showing, meaning his hair is a mystery.

Right side this boy and standing up on two legs is the boy's partner, a dog whose breed is close to a pug and a bulldog. Unlike any other dogs Double D has seen before, this dog has yellow fur and unusually large black eyes, plus the dog is standing on his legs. There is some questioning in mind that this animal was the cause of Ed being knocked down by a large fist, as the dog may possess the ability to enlarge and extend himself anywhere he wants.

The boy charges forward with his sword in tote and swings at Double D, only for the Ed to block the incoming attack. The blades part and Double D makes his move, only for the boy to block his attack as well. The two boys trade blows, causing some sparks to fly from their weapons, and the dog occasionally steps in to deal his own attacks. The two continue to fight for some time, all before the dog begins to notice something odd about Double D and drag the boy in blue away from the fight.

"Whoa, hold on Finn," said the dog. "Take a good look at the boy and see if he reminds you of anything."

The boy in blue stops in his tracks and notices what the dog is talking about. "He's… he's just like me," he muttered. "Another human being, but this time a _real_ human being! Jake, do you know what this mean?"

"That you're not really the last of your kind?" the dog replied.

"Yeah, you're right about that."

"Uh, excuse me fellows, but there is something that I want to ask you about," said Double D. "What exactly are you talking about being the last of your kind? Aren't there other human beings here?"

"No," replied the boy. "From what I heard, humans were long gone during the time known as the Great Mushroom War, and I have been the last human from that war."

"The Great Mushroom War?" questioned Double D, baffled by this new war. "Are you two referring to what might be World War III, where it was said that it will be considered to be a nuclear war and the common thing about nuclear bombs is the cloud from the explosion site, which is usually in the shape of a mushroom, so that is maybe what you were talking about."

The boy and the dog stare blankly at the smart Ed, equally as confused as the Ed when he was asked about the war in general. "Uh, I always thought the Great Mushroom War was caused by actual mushrooms human fought over for," the dog stated.

"Trippy," is Ed's response.

"So if you're just like me, then are there others from where you came from?" the boy apparently named Finn asked. "I've been wondering for a long time about if I really am the last of my kind and also to prove that I wasn't born out of a cabbage like Jake said."

"Well it's certainly impossible for humans to be born out of cabbage patches, but there are some other methods to grow a human out of the womb," said Double D, getting a little scientific. "And as of humans, there are countless others out there, but I really don't think it's your best intent to go out to visit these people."

"And why's that?"

"Well… let's just say…"

"There are crazy people out there that want to kill you!" stated Eddy, recovering from his injury.

"Awesome! That's just the kind of people we want to fight," said Finn. "But if they are humans like me…"

"But didn't he say that there are countless others?" the dog named Jake questioned, pointing out that line from Double D's explanation. "There's probably a few of these bad people out there along with plenty of good people, so you don't have to worry your little head about it."

"So what brings you three here to the Land of Ooo?" asked Finn, putting his sword away in his backpack.

"Me and my friends are on a quest looking for one more friend of ours, but I'm not sure if we can call him a friend at this point," explained Double D. "He's about somewhere near Eddy's height, carries around a piece of two-by-four in his hand, and he might be shouting out 'Revenge' or something."

"Nope, sorry, we haven't seen anyone like that," said Jake. "We encounter a lot of strange folks here in Ooo, but if he sounds bad and if he is bad, it's our job to bring justice to this land and all to the fair folk living here."

"That sounds a bit too harsh," said Double D.

"So are you guys like the Dark Knight, going around and beating up bad guys while protecting everyone from crazy villains?" Ed questioned, getting a bit nerdy.

"We're knights in the sort of way," answered Finn, "but we're not dark. We're fully pure and only fight to keep order instead of going around and killing everyone we see doing something bad."

"Except for that one time where that rock ogre tried to demolish that one town," muttered the dog, "but all we did was kicked a boulder out and he fell into pieces."

"Hey, you guys want to head back to our place?" the blue boy asked. "You can hang out and play some video games while we can go look for your friend if you like."

"Uh, that sounds very generous, but we…"

"We love to!" stated Eddy, cutting the smart Ed off. "We can really go for something to do besides fighting Heartless every day."

"But Eddy, what about doing this task on our own?" said the smart Ed. "Shouldn't we go out and look for Jonny and hopefully bring him back down to earth if he tries to harm us?"

"Double D, this is probably our chance to finally, truly relax," said Eddy. "If we take this offer up, we don't have to fight the Heartless and they can go look for Jonny without us having to worry about getting wailed on by him."

The medium begins to think over about what Eddy just said, thinking there is some benefits to relaxing, but the boys do need to look for Jonny on their own, or at least get Finn and Jake to accompanying them since this is a vast land, and there is also the keyhole this world has unsealed. Double D decides upon joining Finn and Jake, but not to relax at their home, leaving Eddy to groan in response. Ed takes the lead and starts to follow the two back to their home, follow by Double D and Eddy, as the five of them start their trek to wherever Finn and Jake are living.

Upon leaving the Gummi ship to begin their journey, a few Shadows emerge from the ground and start to search the ship to find a way to get inside. The Heartless can feel two hearts beating inside, along with a strong presence emitting from the interior of the ship, so the Shadows crawl along the hull of the ship to find any sorts of cracks. Sadly, there are no cracks for the Heartless to slip in, except for the lower hatch door and the upper hatch allowing them to get inside, but the Gummi ship is sealed tight. When one Shadow tries to loosen the hatch, a dark shadow begins to form and reach up to attack the Heartless and destroying them. The shadow forms a smile and lets out a laugh as it looks behind and sees the very small figures of the boys getting farther away.

Up ahead, the Eds are looking all around their setting, finding the vast green lands appearing to go on for forever, and Finn and Jake seem to be grateful that they have new friends at their side. The five climb up a hill for a brief moment before stopping to hear a plea of help coming from down below. At the bottom of the hill is a strange looking person being chased by two Heartless, both wearing a bandit like attire and carrying two very curved, red-and-black scimitars. Finn and Jake take immediate action and rush down the hill to go help the person, as the Eds decide upon holding back as the two can handle the small amount of Heartless.

However, they did not suspect to feel a large belly and hear the clanking of metal right behind them. The Eds turn around to find a Large Body-like Heartless standing right behind them, along with a few Soldiers right behind. The three boys jump back and reach for their weapons, when they notice the large Heartless gathering fire in its mouth and spitting it right at the Eds. Eddy takes his shield and grabs the spell so he can use it on the smaller Soldiers, while Ed uses Shadara on the large Heartless to cause it to shiver with the darkness and explode from the power.

Once the Heartless are out of the way, the Eds rejoin the boy and his dog, who are finished dealing with the other Heartless. The two are being thanks by the victim and the creature heads off to attend to whatever it is planning on doing. "What was that all about?" asked Eddy.

"Oh it's just common stuff here in Ooo," said Jake. "People get attack by Heartless all the time and it's our job to protect them."

"We're considered to be vigilantes around these parts," added Finn.

"Nah, we're like cops. Crooked cops."

Double D is slightly confused by that statement, but he does not want to go into further details. Considering how the whole world is very unique on their situation, along with their residents, it is at his best not to test their knowledge unless he can find someone that knows plenty about the past and the present. Finn and Jake continue to trek on, leading the way to their home, when the boys notice something coming down from the air and heading right towards them. The being happens to be the rainbow unicorn the Eds saw when they came to their world, and the creature lands nearby to talk to the boys.

"(Finn, Jake, I have some bad news,)" the rainbow asked in Korean, looking very sorrowful.

"(What is it, my Lady?)" asked Jake, somehow being the only one to understand the being.

"(When I was flying into the Candy Kingdom to visit Princess Bubblegum, I found the castle in ruins and several servants knocked out. When I went to see if the princess was all right, I found no signs of her and I'm certain that someone powerful kidnapped her.)"

The dog lets out a loud gasp as he turns to his friend. "Finn, Princess Bubblegum has been kidnapped and her castle has been ransacked in the process!" he gasped, speaking in English.

"What?" stated the boy. "Lady Rainicorn, is everyone all right and did you see who took the princess?"

"(Sorry Finn, I didn't see who took the princess,)" the rainicorn replied, "(but I am certain that the Ice King wasn't behind this attack. As for everyone else, they are doing fine, but they are seriously injured.)"

"Whoa, whoever did that must have some power to do all of that," said Jake.

"It sounds kinda similar to the Ice King, but he wouldn't go and destroy the castle all by himself," mumbled Finn.

"And also he said he wouldn't steal Bubblegum not after the Lich incident," said the dog.

Ed's ears perked up, hearing something relating to his field of interests, and he jumps over to get in more on the conversation. "What is this I hear about a Lich King?" he asked.

"Wait… which Lich King are you talking about?" asked Jake.

"An evil, undead one, that's who," said the tall Ed, grinning excitedly.

"If you're talking the dude we beat to a pulp with a sweater, then he's dead," said Finn. "I was the one to beat him, until somehow he possessed Princess Bubblegum and made her his servant."

"A sweater?" echoed Eddy, sounding unsurprised. "You beat an evil king with a sweater?"

"It wasn't just the sweater. It was with the power of… something that took the Lich down!" stated the boy in blue.

"But isn't Lich direct to the line of the dead," questioned the smart Ed, "to where that this person you fought is nothing but a corpse that can be reborn many times, like your typical zombie?"

"I don't know, but if that's true," said the dog, "there should be a trail of destruction back at the Candy Kingdom showing the Lich was there."

"(I didn't see any trail indicating the Lich was at the Kingdom,)" said the rainicorn.

"OK, so it wasn't the Lich that came into the Candy Kingdom," said Jake.

"And it wasn't the Ice King either," said Finn. "So who could it be?"

"Perhaps the Lich King has several servants working under him that goes across this great land, looking for virgin princesses so he can collect all of them and sacrifice all of them in a boiling broth of hellfire so he can gain infinite power and become king of all of existence!" stated Ed, going off on his own tangent.

Dead silence plagues the Eds once again, with Eddy twitching his eyes and Double D a bit shocked by his friend's statement, along with causing Finn to blush bright red and Jake to be as shocked as Double D. The rainicorn is also surprised by this accusation, since she knows the princess very well, and hearing that makes her worry that what the tall Ed is saying is the truth.

"Boy, has the rating slipped your mind?" the wizard hat asked. "There are certain things that you can't just say out loud in this kind of work."

"Since when did you become the rating police?" questioned Eddy. "It's not like the parents have any jurisdiction into what goes on here."

"True, but still, have some dignity."

"Uh, what are you talking about?" asked Finn, his face still red from his blood.

"It's nothing of your concerns," explained Double D. "This sort of thing happens all the time and we're very used to it. We tend to forget that we are surrounded by people who are not used to what we go through."

"That… sounds like fun," said Finn.

"So, we got ourselves a person to go track down," said Eddy, taking out his shield. "Now all we need to do is go find this Lich King and get back the princess so she can give us a nice reward!"

"Are you really thinking about money?" the medium Ed asked.

"Come on Double D, she's loyalty and she got to have some gold on her that she can part with," the greedy Ed explained. "Plus, her dad could make us knights and we can get bigger rewards for helping people out with their Heartless problem!"

Eddy rubs his hands in glee as Ed leans in to check on his friend. "Is Eddy thinking up of a scam?" he asked.

"I think so," Double D responded. "Wow, Eddy is thinking up a scam this far in the story. This is a bit of a surprise."

"Hey, there's always a time to come up with a scam," the small Ed replied, getting up into Double D's face. "And now that I have a guarantee plan in mind, we just need to go save this princess and collect our reward."

"Well what are we waiting for?" said Jake. "We got ourselves a princess to rescue!"

"Oh Jake, we need protection if we are going up against the Lich," said Finn, taking off his backpack to search for what is on his mind.

The boy takes out some random items varying in size, leading to the Eds to wonder how he keeps some of his larger items, including Finn's sword, to fit inside of such a small bag. Finn found what he is searching for and he draws out two headbands with jewels on them, and Double D notices that these headbands are very similar to the ones they received back in Stormalong Harbor. The boy in blue places one band on his head and the other one onto Jake's head, and Double D takes out the three headbands to hand them to Eddy and Ed to wear.

"Where did you get those?" asked Jake. "Did a princess give you those?"

"More like two kings and we got these in a town that drove us out," explained the smart Ed. "We didn't have an idea on what these for, but after seeing what you have there… it's safe to assume these things have to do with this Lich King, correct?"

"Yeah, these things protect our heads so the Lich can't get inside them and do all sorts of weird stuff to us," said Jake.

"I want to be the Lich King's servant!" stated Ed.

"Oh no, there's no way that you're going to fall to the forces of evil!" stated Normadomus angrily. "And another thing: is that thing supposed to protect me as well or am I left open to have my entire body being possessed by an undead king?"

Ed places the headband onto his forehead and a bubble begins to form around his head, covering up every inch including his complaining hat. The bubble fades away and the wizard hat lets out a sigh of relief, but is still a little skeptical about the whole idea with the headbands. "OK, so what you're saying is these things supposed to keep the Lich King out of our heads?" asked Eddy, also skeptical about the idea.

"Pretty much," answered Finn. "It helped with us and Billy when he beaten the Lich into tree sap, while he was still alive."

"Wait… you said that this Billy beaten the Lich King into some tree sap with bare fists, all while not killing the Lich King?" asked a confused Double D, before remembering a small fact that he stated earlier about the Lich's status.

"That. Sounds. Awesome!" stated Ed, overwhelmed by the idea of a hero beating a villain into a sticky prison.

"Now then gentlemen, shall we proceed to go find this princess and rescue her from this Lich King?" asked Double D.

"But first, there's someone we need to see before we go looking for the princess," said Jake.

As the boys begin their journey to go find the location of the Lich King, Ed looks in the distance and notices something so small, the others failed to notice this little creature. Falling down from the sky on a leaf is a snail, happy as it can be, and the little guy is waving at Ed for no particular reason. Ed returns a friendly wave back to the snail as he rejoins his friend and heads off to go find the undead king. The leaf lands on the ground, and the snail's happy face turns bitter and dark as the bug watches the five boy in hatred.

OOO

Deep within the darkness underneath the cheerful lands, a cold, sinister dungeon snakes far down into the underground to where not a single drop of light can reach it. Several bones of fallen warriors and sacrifices line the walls of this haunting tomb, as a few lingering souls wandering through the halls in hopes of finding an escape. Rotten cobwebs line ceiling with their dead owners, adding on to the grim atmosphere to either scare anyone foolish enough to brave the depths or to seal any potential escapes.

A white blur skims through the hallways in seconds before reaching the main chamber, where a more disturbing sight awaits. A large open pit is sitting in the very center of this room, emitting a sickening, frightful batch of ominous green flames from the core of the world. There are plenty of bones lying within the chamber, with most melted away from the flames, and several pieces of armor and weapons lie along their former owners. The white being, turning out to be the Nobody Zip-fly, takes a step into the chamber and causes a loud cloud of dust to lift up into the air and start to swirl.

The dust cloud gusts over to the opposite end of the chamber to gather in a sinister, black throne fitted for the king of the undead. The dust begins to clump together and start to take the shape of an unusual, and if not disturbing, person. There is no flesh on this person, even if the flesh is dead, and no signs of muscles and organs, leaving only dark bones. The fabric this person is wearing is torn from every angle, as there are several layers to cover what is truly hiding underneath this person's cloak. And the head of this being takes form of a goat's skull, broken horns, and a crown only worthy of a dark king such as this corpse.

"Lich King," hissed Zip-fly. "Oh how I longed to be with a person such as you caliber, to be by the side of a king worthy of ruling a universe full of easy prey to control through simple mind tricks… but I ended up with an imbecile with a goal to acquire an unachievable goal."

There is some heavy breathing coming from the living corpse, as the being picks itself up from the throne and stands at the feet, staring into the emptiness inside of Zip-fly. _Nobody, what brings you and a princess to this room?_ the lich asked through telepathy. _I do not require your service, as I already have a loyal human at my side to collect the princesses in Ooo_.

"I didn't come here to be your servant, Lich King," said Zip-fly, holding out a large burlap sack and dropping it to the ground, causing the inside to go "oof!" "I am only doing this to require service from you."

_What? You dare ask me, the mighty Lich, to step down to a lowly Nobody and serve him!_

The said Nobody calmly points his arm at the Lich King and forms his hand into a katana blade. "I warn you Lich King, do not try me or feel the wrath of my creator, less you are willing to risk your second life over some minor issue."

The dead king backs away and reclines in his throne, thinking over the threat the Nobody made. He has heard the rumors about this being, along with the former Prankster and Blitzer, were created by the powerful Destroyer of Light and the connections that the three have with their creator. If this turns out to be true, the Lich King will be dealing with a more powerful being than himself and Death will be the less of his worries.

_You have gotten me there Nobody, but do not pray you are getting out of this alive_, the Lich King responded. _So tell me, who do you bear within that sack of yours?_

"You may remember this little princess from some time ago when you were awaken from your prison," said Zip-fly, loosening the knot on the bag. "She is the last of your princesses needed to complete your ritual. And you don't need to ask; I have insight of everything through special means."

_You are a crafty Nobody, learning all of my secrets without me or my loyal servant knowing. You and your master are some of the finest minds that I wish to have by my side._

"Yes, but my quest is not drawing to its end unless you do me my favor."

Before the masked boy is a young girl, the same age as Finn the human boy, and she appears to be human if not for her unusual skin tone. Her entire appearance revolves around the color pink, with her hair, dress and skin various shades of pink, and strangely she has the texture of bubblegum. This young girl is held by ropes and tape sticking on to her sticky face, binding her as the Nobody presents the preteen to the Lich King.

_Ah yes, I remember this little damsel_, the Lich King cooed in a sinister tone. _The lovely Princess Bubblegum, oh so young by my cursed touch, only to be freed from my power from that accursed human boy! But now, without that boy to interfere, she will be joining her fellow princesses in my new ritual to regain not only my old powers, but become stronger than the Destroyer of Light!_

The young princess reaches out and lets out a muffled shout at the Lich King, calling out to him that he is not going to get away with his plan and he will never achieve his status through this creepy ritual. _My fair princess, now that you are young of age, you simply do not understand that what drives a kingdom is power_, said the Lich. _If you understand this, you would have been Queen Bubblegum, ruling over your sugary kingdom without worry and have servants waiting on your every whim. I am simply craving for more as I reach out my hand and expand my deceased empire to farther worlds._

The princess continues to let out shouts as Zip-fly takes the princess and places her in the cell in the room. The Nobody looks sad at throwing royalty into a prison cell with other members, but the being feels nothing inside, as he chucks the girl with the other princesses and closes the door shut. Inside of the cage, several girls of every walk crawl up to the newcomer and free her from her bondage as the pink princess rushes up to the bars to talk to her captures.

"You can't get away with this!" stated Princess Bubblegum. "Finn and Jake are coming to rescue me and kick your undead butt back into the ground!"

_Such strong words from such a tender creature_, the corpse replied. _Do keep on believing your heroes will come to rescue you, as they need to face only my loyal servant before falling at the will of the Lich_.

The pink princess lets out an angry growl as two of her cell mates float over to try to comfort her. "Don't worry PB, I'm sure that Finn and Jake will come to get us all," said a vampire wearing casual clothing.

"Yeah, and they were surely take care of these losers once they find all of the princesses here in this dirty place," said a cloud of purple lumps with a star on her head. "And speaking of, I need to go to the bathroom. This place stinks and I don't think I want to use the same corner after what Hotdog Princess did there."

There is some whining coming from behind the three girls, and a dog in the shape of a hotdog cowering behind some other princesses. "Nice going LSP, you just have to go upset her," the vampire said harshly.

"Hey, I don't like these living accommodations as much as you," the cloud retorted. "I actually had a place out in the woods just right to my tastes, and that gourd-wearing freak had to come along and snatch me to put in this trash!"

There is a sudden shadow jumping down from the roof and latching itself onto the cage, freaking the princesses out as there is a low growl coming from the shadow. The front is hidden among the shadows, but the girls can see that is a boy, wearing a hollowed out gourd on top of his head and wearing a torn outfit similar to his master. He is holding onto the cage with one hand as his free hand is grabbing onto a pole carrying a piece of two-by-four on it. "Now listen up ladies," the boy spoke with a hint of possession. "You are not allowed to leave this cell for anything and you are not allowed to speak unless spoken to!"

_Now, now my loyal servant, you mustn't scare our guests like that_, said the Lich King calmly. _We mustn't get them too wild up before we begin the ritual_.

"Yes, my lord," the boy replied, jumping down from the cage.

In the dim light, the exterior of the boy shows a dark complexion and an image of an upcoming villain. He is dressed in a dark outfit of a black long-sleeved shirt with orange spirals on his sleeves and torso, orange pants, black sandals, a flowing black cape, and black gloves in need of repair. The boy has dark skin similar to Rolf and has a large cranium hiding under the hollowed orange gourd, but strangely, the boy's eyes are black and blue to show he is under some sinister spell. In his hand is a wooden rake with a piece of wood tied to the handle, being hold down by a black piece of cloth, as the cloth bears eyes similar to the boys.

"My word, are you insane?" Zip-fly snapped. "Are you really going to go out to corrupt a human being for your ritual?"

_You, a Nobody, are worry for a human?_ questioned the Lich King. _You do not appear to be the kind to give any sort of care for any living being, especially the kind that betrayed you._

"Believe what you want, but there is a reason for this mask," said the Nobody, drawing out a katana. "I may follow the road of evil, but know that not everyone walking this path holds the identity that they portray."

_True enough. My loyal puppet, escort this Nobody out and go after this Finn and Jake so that they do not interfere with my ritual._

"Yes my lord," the boy replied, taking the teeth of the rake and poke Zip-fly in the back.

The two begin to head off from the room to get to the surface, and Zip-fly turns around to notice the many scared, sad faces of the princesses locked away in the cell. The Nobody is trying to formulate a plan to rescue the princesses, but this will go against what he has been pursuing all this time, and he remembers the deal he offered to the Lich King. He holds up a hand to tell

"Lich King, I forgot to mention my offer to you," he said. "It just so happens that three boys come into this room to retrieve the princesses, one of them bears a Keyblade. It is my intention of collecting that Keyblade so my master can use it to get to Kingdom Hearts. Since I brought you a key ingredient, would you do me the favor of getting me the Keyblade?"

Upon hearing the word "Keyblade," the Lich King lets out a horrifying screech and shivers in fear as the corpse stares darkly at the white boy. _You dare mention that accursed weapon in front of me!_ the Lich King roared. _That weapon once wielded by Billy, the same being that sealed me away in that tree? You want me to get the same weapon that tried to kill me?_

"Yes, but not to destroy you. I just need you to get the Keyblade and hand it to me so I can give it to my master and you will never have to worry about that weapon ever again."

_Get this Nobody out of here!_ stated the corpse, forcing the boy to push Zip-fly out of the chamber.

Zip-fly takes this moment to knock the boy back and makes his escape before he could be brought down by a possessed human. The boy starts his chase and tries to catch up with the Nobody, but the white boy is out of his vision and already nearing the entrance. With his current goal in mind, the boy takes the rake and heads towards the exit to go after the incoming boys that are going to save the princesses.

OOO

As far as the eye can see, towering ice in the shape of mountains loom over the horizon as a well-dressed Ed, Double D and Finn, a chilled Eddy and thick-furred Jake walk across the icy grounds the locals called the Ice Kingdom. Within this domain, there is a sea of snow stretching out as much as the grass lands outside of the kingdom. There are some golems made out of solid snow, a wandering critter out of pure fire melting snow, and even a giant Cyclops that try to do harm to the boys. Finn and Jake are very familiar with this land so they are the ones taking the lead for the Eds as they slowly approach their destination.

Up ahead is a pathway leading up to one mountain, where there is a triangular entrance waiting at the end. On the path are several penguins waddling about, carrying around axes out of ice, and the boys quickly weave through the numbers to head up the path. Eddy decides to use the ice to his advantage and got onto his shield to slide on top of the ice and glide all the way to the entrance. The other Eds try to skate just like their friend, but they are having a hard time to move against the snow, so they stick to walk up the path.

Once they got to the entrance, the boys find the place to be nothing of a royal treatment fitted for a king. Inside of the mountain, there is ice making up a majority of the room and items, with only a drum kit, a bed, and a hamper being one of the few things not made out of ice. There is also a cage made out of ice strong enough to prevent even the strongest of warriors out from behind its bars. Along with all of this, there are dirty clothes scattered across the floor, causing Double D to go and put them into the hamper, and also decorations for a party.

"So is this where the Ice King lives?" asked Eddy. "This place doesn't look like it's meant for a king."

"Yeah, the Ice King's a bit of a nerd despite having magic," said Jake. "He lives up here with the goal of marrying a princess and having her as a wife, so he can have someone to take care of him before he dies."

"Sounds like my dad," mumbled Ed.

"Well, rather or not he is living by himself, has a wife at his side or servants, he needs to pick up after himself," grumbled Double D, picking up some underwear, "especially one's clothing!"

"So where's the Ice King?" asked Finn, looking around the room. "Is he out to go to get another princess? If he is, do you remember the last time when he went out to go get a princess?"

"Oh yeah, I remember that," said the dog. "I wonder if we still have those ninja skills…"

There is some talking coming from another room and the boys look at each other in worry, figuring out what to do next, until all five went into hiding behind some items. From the room is a rather large man, wearing a blue cloak big enough to cover his entire body, and has a long white beard to go half-way down his cloak. The man has skin to match his icy surroundings, white eyebrows in shape of lightning and a sharp nose half the size of his beard. And on top of his head is a crown with three rubies shining brightly, emitting some sort of magical power as the man walks into the room.

"All right, so I have everything set for Gunter's surprise party," he mumbled, looking over the setting. "Now all I need to go to the Candy Kingdom, pick up a cake and get the guest-of-honor so we can have a smashing party!"

The man stops in his tracks and begins to feel the atmosphere is slightly off. His nose lifts up and takes a few sniffs around the room, picking up some unusual odors as his beady eyes focuses on Ed in disguise of a standing lamp. The man walks up to the lamp and looks Ed over, trying to remember if he even had a lamp in his room before, and he reaches under the skirt to turn the lamp on. Ed mutters "click" and oddly his whole head is illuminating, brightening up the surrounding area just slightly and casting his shadow out onto the wall. The man lets a shrug and turns the light off, prompting Ed to "click" again and leave the boy alone.

The man eyes a lounge chair made out of solid ice, and once again he stops in his track, only to notice Double D's hat sticking out from above the chair. The man begins to suspect the boys are hiding behind the chair, but when he approaches the chair, he reaches out and lifts the Ed's hat off of his head, revealing his secret to Eddy. "Now what's this sock doing on my lounger?" the man asked. "Shouldn't this be with another sock of mine? Then again, since when do I wear socks?"

"Eddy, we need to get that hat back!" hissed Double D, easily angry about his hat being stolen.

"What's the big deal?" asked Eddy, keeping his voice low. "You lose your hat plenty of times, so what makes this any different. Besides, isn't it about time we show people what's under your hat?"

"Not in this lifetime, Eddy! I'm going to get my hat back!"

The naked Ed leaps from behind his cover and stealthily maneuvers behind of the man to keep his presences from going notice. Double D calls for his Keyblade and places the weapon at his side in case he needs to use it if the man strikes. Moving towards the hamper, the man prompts himself to throw the hat into the dirty clothes, but he spins around and fires a magic attack from his hand. Double D swiftly dodges the attack, but notices that the man was not aiming at him, but rather Finn and Jake, who are now charging at the man.

"ICE KING!" roared Finn, drawing his sword from his backpack.

The two attackers try to hit the man they call the Ice King, but he shoots two bolts of ice lightning at the boys to slow them down. Double D reaches to grab his hat back, but the Ice King swings around and tries to claw at the boy, but the Ed uses his Keyblade to defend himself. Ed's hat knock the skirt off of Ed's head and the boy unleashes a Shadara to help save his friend from the Ice King, causing the large man to shake and to be blinded by the Darkness. Eddy then leaps out from his hiding spot and throws his shield at the Ice King, but the king unexpectedly knocks the shield back and knocks Eddy down to the ground.

Blinded by the Darkness, the Ice King calls forth some Heartless to help him defeat the intruders. These Heartless have an ice theme going on for them, with a few of them trapped inside of a tiny ice cube, a few flowers, two Heartless that resembles like a Flare Note, and a couple that have a bomb theme going for it. The Heartless obey their leader and start attacking the intruders with everything they have, while the Eds and the two locals did their best to defeat the Heartless.

Ed is using his best magic spell of Fire and burning up all of the Heartless he sees, while Double D uses his ringed Fire to wrangle some Heartless as well. Eddy uses his yo-yo to wrap around an ice cube and use it as a flail to beat several Heartless, including the one being thrown around. Finn and Jake are very skilled in fighting in large numbers, especially when it comes to the Heartless, as the two of them trim through the numbers rapidly. Before long, there are no Heartless left for the boys to fight and they focus their attention onto the Ice King, who is now regaining his eyesight.

With his eyesight clear of blackness, the Ice King gathers up some magic and starts shooting ice lightning at the five intruders, making some noises with his shooting as he tries to freeze the boys. Finn and Jake snake in and start wailing on the king, causing him to lose his concentration, as Eddy grabs his shield and tosses it to round around Finn and Jake and hit the Ice King. The back of the cloak is ripped open, along with cutting off some of the Ice King's hair, but strangely the shield misses the king's back.

The medium Ed notices his hat is still in the Ice King's hand and he rushes to go grab the hat, but the king grabs him by the arm and throws him to a wall. Ed comes up and knocks the Ice King in the back of the head with his staff, knocking the crown off but then to be grabbed by the Ice King. He places his crown back on his head and does a point-blank shot at Ed, but Normadomus opens his mouth and chomps down to prevent Ed's face from getting frozen and to cause some pain to the Ice King. Jake then takes a fist and expands it to blow the Ice King away, knocking off his crown once again and dragging Normadomus as well.

The crown lands on top of Double D's head and he can feel some magical energy following through him. He tries to use Fire, but his attack goes from red flames to blue icicles dancing around the Ice King. When his attack hit, the Ice King can feel the burn of a typical fire, but this is more of a freezer burn instead of a heat burn. The smart Ed aims his Keyblade and tries to use Thunder, but he gets the same attack as the Ice King uses on the others. Now knowing that his attacks are based on ice, Double D takes the opportunity to use his Thunder spell to try to capture the Ice King and retrieve his hat once and for all.

However, the Ice King throws the wizard hat at the boy with some force, knocking the crown off and reverting the ice lightning into normal lightning. It happen so fast that the Ice King got a shocking from the Thunder and the two magic wielders to wonder how in the world can ice lightning change into normal lightning. The Ice King is now mad and he pounces onto the boys to gather them up into a ball and start beating away on them.

The fighting comes to a stop when all six of them hear the sound of squawking coming from outside. A random penguin strolls inside and finds the six entangle in a mess, all while looking around his setting to notice the party theme going on. The penguin lets out another squawk to ask what is going on and why the Ice King is on top of some boys and a random dog.

"Uh Gunter, this is not what it looks like!" stated the king, trying to find some excuse to say.

The penguin takes one final long look at the pile, thinking of just what the Ice King is saying, and the penguin waddles to the side to ignore the group. Once the penguin is gone from their sights, the Ice King lifts himself up from the pile and brushes himself off, picking his crown off the ground as well. "Oh great, you boys just had to ruin this party for me," he said. "This is just the moment I want to show off to Gunter, and now he views me more of a freak."

"Hey, we heard you were going to get a 'guest-of-honor,'" said Finn angrily. "You were going to steal a princess, were you?"

"What? No! I was going to go get Gunter after I swooped into the Candy Kingdom and get a cake for him," the Ice King replied. "It's our anniversary of the day we met and I wanted to do something special for him."

"So… you weren't going to go steal a princess?" asked Jake.

"If only there were princesses left in Ooo. Somehow when I went to go find them, they were all gone, even Lumpy Space Princess. Whoever is desperate enough to be steal her anyway?"

There is a moment of silence as Finn and Jake wonder who could steal a princess such as Lumpy Space Princess. "… You?" questioned the dog.

"Besides me!"

"Well, we do know that the Lich has kidnapped Princess Bubblegum, so maybe if you want to help us out…" said Finn.

"Wait a minute… you two came all of this way to ask for _my help_?" the Ice King asked, completely baffled. "Then why did you five wailed on me for no reason?"

"I don't know. We always do this when we see you," said the boy in blue.

"True. … So PB has been kidnapped by the Lich, eh? Well it's his worry now, not mine."

"But what about the princess?" asked Double D. "These two fellows mentioned how you have a sense in tracking down princesses, even though that seems rather disturbing."

"You know what's disturbing, your head boy," the king noted. "Please make yourself decent."

The Ice King hands the hat over Double D so he can place what is rightfully his back onto his head, covering up his secret once again. "Anyway, I don't want to go after Princess Bubblegum, especially after what the Lich did to her," said the Ice King. "I may be weird, but not _that_ weird to be kidnapping her."

"But you said the other princesses are missing," said Jake. "What if those princesses were kidnapped by the Lich as well?"

The king begins to think that question over in his head and tries to link the possibilities together. If what the dog is saying is true, then the Lich King has in his possession all of the princesses of Ooo, with the possible inclusions of the kings and queens of the different kingdoms, meaning the Lich King will start a ritual that will extract their power and add it to his own. The idea seems to be a stretch, but he knows that the only person that kidnaps princesses is him, the Ice King, and he will do anything to get those princesses into his own cell.

"All right, I'm going to join you on this," he said. "But don't think we're going to be this friendly after what you five did here."

"That's fine by me," said Eddy. "I'm only doing this for the reward that this Princess Bubblegum is giving me once this all done."

"Well then, you boys better keep up with me. If we're going to be finding the Lich King, we need to get moving before he can start whatever ritual he is going to do."

The Ice King's beard begins to part and start to flap, giving him the lift as he floats up and flies out through the window. Finn jumps onto Jake's back and the dog stretches out through the exit to then stretch his legs out and walk across the snows and mountains. Double D offers up upon using his Keyblade and turning it into the Joker Hovercycle, with Eddy getting his yo-yo and shield ready to go sledding across the snowy and grassy seas of Ooo.

Transforming the Keyblade into the hovercycle, the Eds board the vehicle and launch themselves far out the room, hovering high above the penguins and snow creatures, as the hovercycle folds out some wings and takes to the skies. Eddy begins to sink and fall to the ground, before being blasted by a Gravitaga to help keep him from falling to his death. Double D pilots the unexpected flying hovercycle down towards the ground and got the single wheel to touch the grass, revving up the engine as he tries to catch up with the Ice King and Jake.

For some time, the Ice King is far ahead of the chasing boys, only to take a couple breaks to make sure the boys are still following them. Jake is towering high above the Ed boys and is using long strides to catch up with the Ice King as Double D keeps adding more speed to the hovercycle to keep up with Jake. The group eventually reaches to a beach, where Finn jumps off of Jake and makes a make-shift raft for the boy and dog to ride on, as Double D continues to use the hovercycle to get across the ocean. The five boys still trail behind the Ice King as they cross the ocean, only to eventually reach a dark land of ruins.

The hovercycle begins to rumble and the Eds got off as soon they touch land, preventing themselves from getting hurt by the bike and sparing Eddy from getting another non-squinter thud. Finn and Jake join the Eds after landing their raft on shore, and they notice the Ice King mentioning the princesses and the Lich King are not far off from where they are, so they can walk the rest of the way. The Ice King flies off to go see if he can find the entrance to the cave, while the Eds and the two locals follow from behind, only for Eddy to get the receiving end of something fast-moving.

The small Ed is blown back from the sudden attack and his friends are quick enough to recover him. There is a thick line going right down the middle, and he looks as woozy when he gets hurt from crashing on the hovercycle. "Did someone catch the number on that broomstick?" he asked. "I want to meet the man responsible for getting me my rubber ducky…"

Finn points out the source of how Eddy got damage, eyeing a boomeranging rake as it returns to its owner. The boy that is the servant of the Lich King poses the rake with its teeth at the ground and the piece of wood on the other end looking down at the boys, as the servant is standing up on top of a rock looking down with his dark eyes. The sober Eds lower their friend by dropping him and they look up to notice this boy as well, with Eddy quickly recovering and joining them as well.

"Isn't that Jonny?" pondered Double D.

"I think that's Jonny," Eddy responded. "I mean, who else puts a board onto a pole and tote it around like it's his partner or something?"

"Hey Jonny!" shouted Ed, calling out to his friend.

The servant stares down at the Ed boys with a cold, sharp stare as the boy jumps down from his perch and land in front of the Eds. He slowly straightens out and continues to stare at the boys with cold look as the Eds notice something wrong with their former neighbor. "Uh Jonny, have you been getting any sleep?" asked Ed. "Your eyes are black and blue."

"Ed, that's when someone beat you in the eye," Eddy corrected.

"Uh, I don't believe your theories are correct," Double D added worrisome. "Take a good at Plank and see what I mean."

The two Eds notice what the medium Ed is saying, looking at the two eyes on the piece of cloth, and they can see the same eyes that are on the boy's face. "Eddy, Ed, I can safely assume that Jonny here is not the same loveable person from the cul-de-sac," said the smart Ed. "Instead, he is being possessed by a very strong being."

"But how can that be?" said Eddy. "We tried to hypnotize him but the best we got was Plank. How could he be possessed if he can't be hypnotized?"

"There are some differences between possession and hypnotism," said Normadomus. "Hypnotism only works on certain people, while possession only works if you're a ghost or can dive into someone's mind."

"The boy you know as Jonny doesn't exist anymore," said the boy with the same, if not demonic, possessed tone. "There is only the Gourd and Timber the Dark Shard, and by the orders of the Lich, we are ordered to prevent any intruders from interrupting our faithful king!"

"Jeez Louise, since when is Jonny ever like this?" asked Eddy.

"Finn! Jake! We need your service over here!" whined Double D.

"We're kinda busy at the moment here!" called out Jake, punching a Heartless.

The possessed boy named Jonny makes his move by taking the rake and motions it into a sweep, knocking all three Eds of their feet. Double D uses his Keyblade to prevent an incoming attack on his front as his friends recover and jump back to think over a plan. Ed wants to use a Thunder, but Double D stops him, telling him not to hurt the possessed boy in case Jonny is still fighting the Lich King's control. Eddy thinks differently as he rushes in and pushes the boy down with his shield, only for the board named Plank to hit him right between the legs.

Writhing in pain, Eddy holds on tightly as Jonny focuses back on Double D and Ed to finish them off. Taking the rake, Jonny tosses his weapon and watches the gardening tool head for the Eds with strong force, and Ed uses his staff to deflect the rake. The weapon heads up into the air before crashing into the ground with the piece of wood staring deep into their souls. Jonny comes rushing up and latches his hands onto the handle, making himself spin to deliver a kick to the two Eds.

Double D blocks the attack with his Keyblade and Ed uses his staff to bat Jonny away. Jonny grabs onto the rake and draws it from the ground, landing on his feet as he twirls the tool around his body. Ed is easily impressed by the little stunt, only for him to be left open for Jonny to use the rake's teeth and scrape them across Ed. The wizard hat casts Aeroga to blow the possessed boy across the ground, leaving Jonny to use his rake and toss a rock to knock the hat off of Ed's head.

Double D begins to think out a plan to how he is going to break Jonny free of his possession and put an end to this fight. That is when he notices a vending machine Heartless walking right above the fight. This Heartless is similar to the one back at Foster's, but the base is red instead of black, and it looks a bit smaller than the other one. Thinking of a plan involving Jonny and the vendor, Double D preps his Keyblade as he watches the possessed boy come charging right at him.

Finn calls out that his sword is loose and is flying right at the smart Ed. The blade lands right next to Double D, missing his leg by a few inches as the Ed adds the sword to his latest plan. As Jonny draws near with the rake, the smart Ed draws the sword from the ground and raises both of his weapons to block the incoming attack. Once settle, Jonny takes his rake and tries to bash Double D, all while the Ed uses his two weapons to prevent either the teeth or the handle from hitting him and keeping his eyes on the Heartless walking across the rocks.

Once the vendor reaches the right spot, Double D takes his Keyblade and fires a Thunder spell, sending the lightning bolt straight at the Heartless but not to destroy it. The attack hits a weak point in the rock, causing cracks to form and the Heartless to lose balance as Eddy recovers from his hard blow and notice the falling vendor. Double D signals to Eddy to knock the vendor Heartless over to the fight, and Eddy takes out his yo-yo to wrap around the Heartless and fling it over to the smart Ed.

Finn heads over to where Double D is and asks for his sword back, and the Ed did so as he dodges an attack from Jonny. He notices the Heartless getting nearby and waits for the exact moment of impact as the Ed prepares to use Light on both the Heartless and Jonny. Once the vendor got close, Double D unleashes his attack and casts the bright light on both enemies to deliver a pure light to the possessed boy and a devastating attack to the Heartless. The light clears and Jonny is lying on the ground with his eyes shut and a blue vial of liquid right behind the boy. Ed looks down at the fallen boy and then at the vial as he picks the bottle up to check its contents.

"Cool, a Phoenix Down!" he stated, holding the bottle up in his face.

"A Phoenix Down?" wondered Normadomus. "I've never seen one of these before, especially within this part of the universe. How in the world did one these things end up in that Heartless?"

"What exactly is a Phoenix Down?" asked Double D.

"A Phoenix Down is a potion that will revive any fallen comrade in battle, or anything that is dead, especially useful if you're facing zombies in battle," explained the wizard hat, before an idea dawned onto him. "That's it! With this Phoenix Down, we can use it to defeat the Lich King and be done with this world!"

"Are you certain it could work? You never tried to use a Phoenix Down on an undead person before, did you?"

"Remember boy, my library is full of vast knowledge even beyond this section of the universe. If a phoenix can rise from its ashes, then a Phoenix Down will be able to resurrect the Lich King."

"I don't know about that," said Finn, overhearing the conversation. "I don't think reviving the Lich is such a good idea, since we don't know if he's at his full power or not."

"And speaking of, how far are we to the entrance to the cave?" asked the smart Ed.

"I've been wondering what you boys were up to," said the Ice King, flying high above the boys. "I found the entrance to the cave and I'm hearing some spooky chanting coming from the bottom, so we might want to hurry up if we want to rescue the princesses in time."

The five boys gather together once again and they begin to rush over to where the entrance to the Lich King's hideout is, leaving Jonny behind to recover from his possession and the Light attack. The entrance to the cave is an abandoned subway station, where only the sounds of ominous chanting echoing off the walls and a chilling draft rushing out from the cave. All six of them slowly enter the cave, carefully watching their step as Finn warns the Eds that the floor can give way and they could fall into the Lich King's pool of fire.

The chanting is getting louder as the boys and the Ice King draw closer, moving slowly to prevent from falling but quickly enough to get to the chamber of the Lich King. Finn readies his sword and a pink sweater from his bag, prompting Eddy to question about it before Finn telling him that this is the sweater that bested the Lich when the boy fought him. The locals also remind the Eds that the Lich King will try to possess their minds, so the Eds tighten their headbands to make sure the bands will not be knocked off during the fight.

The group can feel the ritual right below them and Finn begins to fear if they are too late to save the princess. When Double D takes a step over a bone, his foot breaks through the floor and he starts to fall down towards the rising green flames. Ed grabs onto his arm and pulls him up from falling down into that fire. Finn and Jake look over the edge to notice the being they are searching for standing in front of the fire, chanting his spell as the fire reaches out and wraps around his hands. Finn looks over to his side and he notices the princesses inside of the cage, telling the Ice King they are trapped inside there, and the three locals drop down into the chamber to confront the Lich King.

"All right Lich, it's time to end this!" stated Finn in a heroic way. "Let go of all of the princesses and return from whence you came!"

_Finn the human boy_, hissed the Lich King. _My, it has been a while, has it? I distinctively remember our time together how you destroyed this body and ruined my chance of living inside of your fair Princess Bubblegum!_

"Well guess what?" said Jake. "We're here to kick your sorry patoot and freeing the princesses so you can't get any more power!"

_That's too bad. It is already too late for you to save the princesses, as I have already regained my full power!_

The Lich reaches out and blasts a concentrated energy attack at Jake, knocking the dog back and making the dog weak and ill. Finn puts on the sweater and draws his sword, prompting to take down the Lich King with his sweater as the Ice King flies over to the cage and starts picking the lock. The Eds take the moment to climb down the hole and land short of the fire pit, with Double D being the last and almost got burned by the flames. When one flame got close to the Ed, he notices a pair of red eyes staring right back at him, and he jumps back in fear from the sudden scare.

"Double D, what's wrong with you?" asked Eddy, a bit worried and frighten.

"I saw… I saw… I saw a man in the fire," the medium Ed panted. "It's almost as if… that was the same man from… Jump City."

"Mumbo?" pondered Ed.

"No, that man on that floating skull. I saw his cold stare right in front of my face… and I also caught a glimpse of his face…"

"Now not the time to worry about that!" stated the small Ed. "We need to get rid of this evil king and get the heck out of here with our reward!"

Remembering about the Phoenix Down, Ed picks the vial out of his pockets and gets a good grip on the bottle as he begins to look for a good spot to hit the Lich King. Waiting for Finn to get out of the way, the tall Ed uses every muscle in his body to chuck the Phoenix Down across the chamber, sending the vial across the fire and straight at the Lich King. However, the corpse props one hand up and destroys the bottle in mid-flight, causing its contents to spill into the fire and evaporating into gas. The Eds look in horror as their one chance is gone before their eyes.

_Do you really believe some mere Phoenix Down is going to cure me of this state? I rather have the power of Light magic do me in instead of some silly revival concoction._

"He… He didn't even turn around to see it was coming," muttered Double D.

"We're screwed," said Normadomus.

"I agree," replied Eddy, heading for the exit.

At the cage, the Ice King finally deals with the lock by freezing the device and slamming the frozen lock against the bars of the cage. Once the lock is off, the king opens the door and the princesses pour out from their cell, grateful that they are being rescued by someone, even if that person is the Ice King. There are even a few that gave the Ice King a small hug, which is freaking him out a slight because he never had a woman touch him like that before.

"Nice job rescuing all of us, Ice King," said the vampire, floating out from her prison. "I didn't expect you to come and get us all."

"Marceline?" questioned the king. "What are you doing in here? You're not a princess."

"I know, but that boy wearing the gourd mentioned how royalty's royalty and he took me from my home. So who are those three over there?"

"Meh, there some random boys Finn and Jake found. I haven't got their names so they're nothing important."

_Foolish Ice King, I praises for your assistance in getting all of the princesses out and readying them for the ritual_, said the Lich King.

"Oh crud no!" cried Finn, shoving a foot into the Lich King's face.

"Eddy, we need to do something to help Finn out," said Double D.

"Are you kidding? I'm getting outta here!" stated Eddy. "There's no way that I am going to fight that crazy zombie right there!"

"Ed must fight zombie!" cried the tall Ed, raising his dark staff up into the air.

"Then tell you what, you can help Jake and the princesses out of the cave," said Double D, taking out a bottle of Hi-Potion. "Use this on Jake when you get outside. We'll stay behind and help Finn beat the Lich King."

The small Ed takes the potion from his friend, and he gives a firm nod to the others as he pockets the vial and walks over to one of the princesses to lead them out. Double D has his Keyblade out and ready to strike and Ed primes his staff to perform magic, but the two did not move from their spots as Finn is sent flying across the room and the Ice King moves over to talk to the Lich King.

"Hey Lich, I thought it was my job to steal princesses, not yours."

_Is that really? You do understand there are no rules in this time, meaning that I am free to pursue any princess that I might need for this ritual._

"But you kidnapped Princess Bubblegum, one of my favorite princesses! You had the gall to send some boy after a young princess to have her sacrifice?"

_I did not send my servant to go retrieve the princess. That task was done by a Nobody…_

"Let me tell you something Lich, if you ever dare lay a finger on any princess, especially Princess Bubblegum, I will have Gunter sent down here and destroy everything you need to take over Ooo!"

_Such a cheap threat, but really that is something special coming from your mouth Ice King_, said the corpse, holding up a hand. _Die…_

The Ice King takes his own hand and swats the Lich King's hand out from his face, looking at the corpse with a mean look. The Lich King then takes a few flames from the pit and launches it at the Ice King, who then uses his ice magic to stop the fire and shoot a few icy lightning bolts at the undead king. Everyone is watching this fight unfold, with Finn and a weak Jake watching in bewilderment as the two kings stand equal against each other. However, the Lich King proves to be stronger than the Ice King and he prepares to launch a final attack, just as Ed causes the ground to split open and use Terra to stop the lich.

The corpse turns around and finds the Keyblade aiming straight at him, only for his face to unravel and reveal a hidden monstrosity hiding underneath. The Lich King then lets out a horrifying screech as his face reconnects and raises the flames from his pit to prevent the Keyblade from slaying him. Double D preps himself to use Light to help bring the Lich King down, and he launches his attack at just the right moment. The corpse launches his flames at the Ed as soon he unleashes the Light spell, and the whole chamber explodes from the sudden collision of hellfire and pure light.

Everyone is knocked back into the fall and their vision is blocked, thanks to the bright light of the smart Ed's spell. Once everything is settle, the Eds check around the chamber to find the Lich King is gone from the room, meaning that the blast must have taken him out. The princesses are chattering among each other saying that they now do not have to worry about that awful man ever again, and Eddy remembers that he needs to give Jake the Hi-Potion to make him feel better.

As soon as he is done, the small Ed finds Double D lying on the ground and his eyes full of static. He and Ed pick their friend and coax him out of his spell to see if he is all right. The smart Ed shakes his head and plants a hand on top to feel the pounding going on in his head. "Did we… did we win?" he asked.

"We did Double D, but what was going on with your eyes?" asked Eddy.

"I don't know… though it feels slightly strange having that brief glimpse of whoever that being was…"

"You looked like me after watching too many monster movies on Halloween," commented Ed.

"Well, my job is done here," said the Ice King, flying up above the fire pit. "If you tell anyone what just happened down here with me, well… I know where you live."

With that, the king takes off through the hole in the ceiling and makes his way out of the cavern to head back home. The Eds got themselves up and start to head back towards the surface, where they are stopped by the vampire named Marceline. She reaches around from behind and kisses Double D on the cheek. "Good work out there," she said. "You and Finn make great heroes, even though the Ice King did save us. Say, are you using that shirt?"

"Uh… why yes I am," the Ed replied nervously, unsure on what the sexy vampire lady is going to do next.

"Oh, all right…"

"Can you turn me into a vampire?" Ed pleads, getting up into Marceline's face.

"Uh… perhaps another time. I think I hear LSP calling for me. Maybe I'll see you boys again some other time." The vampire takes her leave and heads down the hallway as Eddy gives his friend the stink eye for attracting a lady to him and not the greedy Ed.

Back inside of the chamber, the dog Jake walks over to his friend and helps him out of the chamber by weaving through the hallways and out into the open to where the two can smell the fresh air once again. As they reach outside, Jake lowers Finn down and he looks towards the horizon to find the Ice King heading back to his domain: the Ice Kingdom.

"Did the Ice King just… just… just…"

"Dude, let's not talk about it," said Jake. "You just need to get your brains to charge up while it thinks over what the Ice King just did."

OOO

"I'm really sorry guys for beating you up back there. I really am!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have gotten yourself lost and ended up being possessed by that freak in the first place!" Eddy ripped, still angry at Jonny for what he did to the boys.

"Well the good news is that you're back to normal and we have found you," sighed Double D, feeling relieved now that they have gathered the last of the cul-de-sac children.

The Ed boys are now back in the Land of Ooo at their Gummi ship, along with a tied-up Jonny and Plank, Finn and Jake, and a freed Princess Bubblegum with her escort home. The Eds are grateful that this part of their journey is complete, now only leaving them to find the keyhole for this world, and also to make Eddy happy by claiming some kind of reward from the princess. Ed got the door open and totes Jonny inside with the ropes still on him, as Double D and Eddy talk a little bit with the young princess.

"Thank you so much for your bravery in not only coming to rescuing all of us, but beating the Lich King," said Princess Bubblegum, bowing before the Eds.

"It was nothing really," said Double D modestly. "We are just doing our part in helping the needy; making sure you lovely ladies aren't sacrifices by some undead king."

"But there's something that I want to ask you, Princess," said Eddy greedily. "Since we did save you, is there something that we can have to remind you of, say money?"

"I don't have any money on me, but you can have some of my hair," the princess replied, taking her short hair and handing a few pieces to Eddy, Double D and Finn.

The small Ed looks disappointed by his gift, but knowing she is literally made out of bubblegum, he shrugs it off. "Meh, a reward's a reward," he said, shoving the whole piece into his mouth.

"Well I must be off now," said Princess Bubblegum, mounting the rainicorn. "Farewell to you all!"

The rainicorn takes to the skies, flying away with the young princess on her back as the boys way goodbye to the princess. "So Jake, how are you feeling?" asked Double D.

"I feel all right, being a magic dog and all, but my stomach feels slightly queasy," said the dog, "but I'm pretty sure it'll go away by night."

"It's good to hear that the Lich King didn't do anything terrible to you," the smart Ed said before getting the same feeling whenever there is a keyhole nearby. The Ed checks all around to see where the keyhole could be until he notices the waving snail in front of him. The boy can feel the energy emitting the shell very strongly and he prepares his Keyblade as a flash of light burst out from the tip and hit the shell, allowing that familiar clicking to be heard, and the Eds to let out a sigh.

"Well, that does that," said Double D, putting his Keyblade away. "Now that we got the last of the keyholes, it's time that we head back to Traverse Town and figure out a way to get our world back. But first, we do need to find those Pure Hearted and also Hollow Bastion."

"Man, I was hoping you would have forgotten about that now," groaned Eddy.

"Hey, I want to say it was fun to be with another human," said Finn. "I am really happy now that I know there are more others like me out there, wherever they may be."

"Well Finn, if you have the material, you can make your own Gummi ship and venture out into the vastness of space, visiting the countless worlds and meeting such unique people," replied Double D.

"I'm looking forward to that."

There is a small cry coming from afar and the two locals look out to find an old man chasing a few ninjas who are carrying a diamond over one of their heads. "Hey Finn, you know what times it is?"

"Adventure Time!" cried Finn, drawing out his sword as the two boys head off to go chase after the ninjas.

The two Eds watch the boy and his dog head off on another journey as they hear the cries of Sarah from inside of the Gummi ship. The two enter their ship and close the door, quickly lifting up the grassy sea as the Eds leave this world and head off to continue on their journey to rescue the Pure Hearted. The world is leaving their sights, leading them into the blackness, as the shadow from earlier perks itself up and laughs an evil laugh as the ships heads towards its next destination.

* * *

Quick question for all of you: how many of you weren't expecting to see the Lich King in this story? I wasn't.

Seriously, I wasn't exactly planning on using the Lich King (or the Lich as they call him in the show, but screw Blizzard! They don't own my soul!) in this particular chapter and only making the Ice King as the main villain, but after watching the Season 2 finale… yeah, I thought differently. Seeing how awesome and creepily the Lich King turned out to be (in his original character designs, he wasn't exactly a true threat), I decided upon adding the big bad into this story of mine to prove… you can't kill the undead. Because Lich is part of the whole undead theory, correct?

So yeah, this marks the end of the normal shows for this story. Now that I am done with the shows and the collection of the cul-de-sac children (I forgot about Jonny when I was planning this chapter, really), I am now going to focus on the remaining two worlds for this story, with one being a familiar location, and I need to find a way to jam several boss battles into the next few chapters. Well, that shouldn't be too much of a task for me since I am going a bit big on this project, so go big or go home.

And did I really just give the Ice King a bad-a moment? Seriously, we all know the Ice King has yet to show anything cool as a villain, besides having an army of penguins with one of them of questionable gender and the most evil soul in all of Ooo, and all he can muster is ice powers and being a pathetic lover. Having him stand up for Finn and Jake, along with the princesses AND Marceline, all to take on the Lich King and freeing the princesses… I think we need to give him more credit.

*old radio voice* And what will come of Double D, now that he has seen something very sinister in the fires of the Lich King? What will his eyes seen when the static takes over? And is there a connection between all of this and future events to come? *clears throat to normal voice*

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is of course Hollow Bastion, but it is not the same world from the main games we all know of.


	21. Act III, Ch 21: Hollow Bastion, part 1

OK everyone, this is the moment we have been waiting for… it's time that we go back to normal _Kingdom Hearts_ and present a world that is a staple in just about every revision of the game… Hollow Bastion! Well, it may not be, but still the world is a commonplace within the whole series and really is a bit of an icon as well.

But let's forget about that. For the next three chapters, this world is going to be the main focus, along with me trying to write up over 60, if not 80, pages for just this world alone! That's right, I am going to be writing over EIGHTY pages for just one world in the span of three, and I don't think anyone has done that for Hollow Bastion or for any of the normal worlds. But even if I get close to 90, these chapters aren't going to be as long as my Icicles-R-Us chapter back in _Deadlocked_, with my personal best of 44 pages! … I _really_ need to think things over.

So what can we suspect from all of this… like I said, not the same world and a whole boatload of action, especially with a former friend… And also I would like for you to meet one of my strongest characters to come…

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One – The Grand Halls of Hollow Bastion

OOO

The vast darkness surrounds the confused Double D once again, with the absolute black covering every inch everywhere the boy can see. There is nothing underneath the boy: no stain-glass portrait and no sea of water to hold the Ed afloat. He is left to wander around alone in this chilling darkness, with not a single soul to help him out of this world or to fight against. The smart Ed takes a few steps into the darkness, hearing the hollow echoes of his footsteps bouncing off unknown walls as the boy starts his exploration of this vast darkness.

With no leads to help guide him through this blank world, Double D is only keeping a straight line as he continues to walk on. After a few more steps, the boy comes to a stop and notices the cloaked figure from his past visions up and ahead of him, so he rushes up to the person to speak to whoever it is. Once nearby, the cloaked figure holds up a hand to halt the smart Ed and got him to stop only a few feet away. Double D can feel a very strong, ominous presence emitting from under the cloak, so he draws out his Keyblade so that he can fight the cloaked figure.

"Do you really believe that you can challenge me to a fight?" the cloaked figure questioned. "Boy, you simply don't comprehend that you require more strength and stamina if you ever want to keep up with me."

_Who are you? How come I am getting a strong sense of evil coming from you?_

"It is not I you are seeking, but rather your answer lies in the shadows behind you."

The Ed follows the order of the cloaked figure and turns around to see what is behind him, only to find a man completely hidden in the blackness, save for his fingers, head and hair. Double D can feel the uncompressed ominous pressure emitting from this person, strong enough to make him stick to his stomach, and he grabs a hold of his Keyblade to prepare to strike. When he tries to attack, the man stand perfectly still as the boy is knocked back by the shadows surrounding the man. The Ed got back up onto his feet and casts Thunder at the man, but not even his magic is not enough to move the man at all.

_Who… what are you?_

"_My name is of no importance to you boy, neither is any of my countless aliases. My true identity lies within the shadows and shall remain hidden among the darkness, for no more mere mortal like you should know my true appearance. And if must ask, my mission shall be unclear to you and from all of your closest friend. I am only here on a personal score to settle… and you are one on my long list_."

_If that's true, then who are you working for?_

"_I work for no soul lowering than I. I do not succumb myself to allow the lack of servitude to the weak-minded that will only stab you in the back claim the very goal that most definitely belongs to me!_"

There is something within that line of statement that got the smart Ed thinking over. The talk of servants turning on this man and claiming a certain item that should belong to this man is getting the Ed to scratch his head about. Double D remembers about how Jib is connected to a master and he is looking for Kingdom Hearts as he thinks, and the same could go for Zip-fly, Prankster and Blitzer, but the Destroyer of Light really stands out in his mind. That one statement from the man is creating a weak, but a possible, connection between the man and Jib, so Double D wants to pursue more into the matter.

_Just who are you anyway, and what is your connection to Jib the Destroyer?_

There is a sharp, painful blow dealt to the mysterious man, grasping onto his chest as he stares at the Ed boy with a cold, evil stare. Now with his defenses lowered, this gives Double D the perfect opportunity to not only get the information he most definitely seeks, but to see if he can land a hit. He prepares his Keyblade just in case he can find an opening and he starts asking questions about Jib, Kingdom Hearts and all that has been going on, with only a vast majority of those questions appearing to be doing damage to the mysterious man, but with only one sole exception…

_Just tell me what your identity is! Is it too hard to answer that question!_

"_I… I will never reveal… my true appearance to such a lowlife as you human!_"

_Then if you can't tell me about your identity, then what exactly are you? I know that you're powerful enough to created Jib, and your reactions are enough to support that._

"_Yes… I am. You can probably say that I am what you call a wizard… but perhaps that is only for those who are good. You can say that I am a warlock…_"

_A… warlock?_

"_Yes and a very powerful one at best. I have powers beyond what mankind can even dream of, strong enough to defeat ten hyper-crazed ghost reapers, and I am willing enough to cause several apocalypses thrice over. If my creation Jib were to continue to serve at my side and complete his mission like he was told, all of that power lying within Kingdom Hearts will be mine and I will be the supreme ruler of the universe!_"

Now to the smart Ed, he now knows that this mysterious man is very angry at his creation for betraying him, and there are holes in his defense. Double D rushes up to the man to finally deal some sort of damage, but he did not take into account that the man notices him coming and prevents the Ed from attack. The man raises his shadows up and blows the Ed back several feet, only to then for the boy to recover and charges right back at the man, but this is proving more of a challenge to Double D than he previously thought.

"_Can you not see it now boy? You are easily no match against my own powers! My abilities surpassed the ghost reapers by ten folds, but once I claim the infinite power lurking at the center of existence, not even several hundred gods will stand against my being!_"

Double D now starts to realize that he is dealing with a threat that is much stronger than Jib. If this man really is the creator of the Destroyer of Light and has this tremendous power to cause apocalypses three times over, then fighting him alone, or even with his friends, is not going to be enough to stop this mysterious man. Still, the Ed needs to prove himself that he is not going to lose this fight, proving how much stronger he has become through this journey, even if it means fighting an enemy several leagues ahead of his own.

Gripping onto his Keyblade, the smart Ed charges up to the man and tries once again to break through his defenses and land any sort of damage onto the man. The mysterious man got the shadows around him back up and blocks every single one of Double D's attack, preventing the boy from getting any closer to the man. Double D notices that this man is not moving a single inch of his body, meaning this man is truly powerful enough to not move his arms to direct where the shadows should strike. One strike knocks Double D back and he prepares to strike once again, just as the mysterious man prepares for his decisive blow.

That is until a catastrophic attack dealt by Double D's behalf sent not only him, but the mysterious man, in opposite directions and both looking each other in anger. The Ed looks dumbfound down at his Keyblade, wondering how in the world could that one point of contact caused a devastating attack, until he remembers the other times the attack landed. The smart Ed realizes that his Keyblade possessed a hidden Limit Break and he has grateful to finally take notice of this very unique ability. The boy takes a look at the man to find that there is no sign of physical damage, but his health says otherwise as the attack was enough to take a chunk out of his health.

The only problem is that this particular chunk is only a very small fraction to compare to the mysterious man's massive, multiple-layered health.

Double D is now completely horrified by the appearance and the strength of this mysterious man. Here before the Ed is a man of god-like caliber, strong enough to create another man of his own appearance to go about and destroy worlds, use only shadows around him while standing in one spot and not even blinking, and has taken a severe attack that could potentially kill another person but is rather a small sting to this man. That alone is enough to make Double D to lose all feeling in his body, dropping the Keyblade from his hand, and plopping onto his knees as his mind begins to process worrisome thoughts.

_He's… it's too much for me… There's nothing that I can do. There's not a single chance that I can win this fight. He's just too powerful for me…_

"_Now you are starting to comprehend my power. You have now seen that you are too weak to stand up against my might. You are just like the countless others that fell before me. I have yet to find a worthy adversary in years, and now here I am in the mind of a strong boy and he is cowering at my feet. Your strength is this test has fail you, telling you that you are not worthy of living anymore. Try all you want, but not knowing your opponent will get yourself kill, even if that opponent is me!_"

_But… why me? Why have you chosen me over all of the countless others in the universe?_

"_As I said earlier, you are on my long list of people I am seeking, and your friends are among the many names on that list as well. The three of you, along with the worlds you have visited, are proving to be rather an obstacle in my mission for infinite power. I cannot allow any of you to interfere with my plans, so the only option that I have is to eliminate you right here, right now. Prepare to die, Edd boy…_"

The shadows surrounding the man begin to flare up and start to take shape, with a few transforming into katana blades. With the man keeping his cold stare locked-on the fallen Ed, he silently orders his shadows to attack the boy at his weaken state. With the sharp blades drawing near, Double D begins to recall all of his memories that he spent with his friends, going back to when he first met the other Eds, all the way to the moment of the explosion in Ooo. The shadow katanas raise their blades up and prepare to swing down, but both the mysterious man and Double D did not suspect to find the other two Eds in the darkness.

"_Im… Impossible! There is no concealable way for you to be in here!_"

_Eddy! Ed! What are you two doing in here?_

"Well, well, well, look who decided to wake up!" said the small Ed sarcastically. "We're came in here to save your sorry behind!"

"We found you freaking out and decided to dive into your dream," replied Ed.

_Guys… thanks for saving me._

"Now's not the time to be saying thanks. We just need to lose this bozo and find a way out of this joint," gritted Eddy, struggling against the powerful shadows.

Double D's mind snaps back into reality and he got back onto his feet, grabbing onto his Keyblade as an idea pops into his head about how to save his friends. He leans in and tells the others about what he is going to do and the smart Ed leans back to prepare his Keyblade for his Limit Break. Eddy and Ed continue to hold up their defense against the shadow as the mysterious adds more shadows onto the boys to make them work to hold everything together. Once they are at their limit, the Eds break away and allow the flood of shadows to rush in and charge at Double D, who then takes his Keyblade and smashes through the shadows to inflict damage to the man.

"Whoa," whistled Ed. "How did you do that?"

_That would be the power of the Limit Break, Ed. One that is strong enough to inflict a counterattack powerful enough to leave heavy damage in its wake. But only if there is a strong attack hitting my Keyblade._

"Great, now can we please get out of here?" asked Eddy. "All of this darkness is really creeping me out."

"_Sadly, you three are not going anywhere as long as I still stand. I have finally retrieved all three of you boys for my personal satisfaction, and now I am not going to allow this opportunity to slip right by me for you to leave this realm!_"

"OK freak, just who do you think you are and what are you going to do with us?" barked the small Ed.

"… The Man in Shadows…" muttered Ed in a dark voice.

_The Man in Shadows?_

"_So… one of you knows of this form's alias? You boys must be very familiar with this particular form of mine. Since you now figure out who I am, it is now my duty to put you out of commission and be done with you three for good._"

"Hey! There's no way that you're getting rid of us!" stated Eddy, now angry by this statement. "You're going have to get through me if you want to get the rest of us!"

"_You boys simply do not understand that you cannot win this situation. I am proving myself to be a stronger adversary than the ones you three have fought before and will to come. I have made your friend realize that he is not dealing with some measly toss-aside mook or your run-of-the-mill boss. I am the real power behind all of what is happening. I am the one that will rule over everything. I am the one that will destroy every threat that stands in my path. I will become the one that will be the conqueror of the universe!_"

_No… you're not._

"_What! How dare you disapprove such a statement! Do you not recall who you are dealing with here!_"

_Yes. You're just a part of my imagination that is only here to make me get stronger and so far you are doing your job. Now that your job is done, my friends and I are taking our leave and to say fare…_

The man now called the Man in Shadows tenses up and unleashes a deafening roar of anger as the shadows surrounding him flare up intensely. The Man in Shadows cocks his head down and glares at the Eds with a flaming evil stare as his arms lower to his sides and the area around him begins to show some visibility. The Eds rush up to attack the man but they could not reach him thanks to the shadows protecting their master. Double D got a Light spell going to open a path, but even his strongest spell is not enough to put a dent to the powerful, furious shadows.

"_Now all three of you can see that none of your feeble attacks cannot pass through my shadows and deal any harm to me! You may think that I am nothing but a mere illusion, if I were to take my shadows and impale all three of you on the spot, then will you believe that I am an illusion or not?_"

_If you do, then all I ask is for one thing: I just want you… out… of… my… HEAD!_

The force of Double D's shout is powerful enough to cause a burst of light to emit from the Ed and allows the Eds to escape from the Awakening. The pure white light consumes every inch of the blackness, prompting Eddy and Ed to cover their eyes and the Man in Shadows to feel the same ill as Double D felt when he first met this man. With the light continuing on into the darkness, the mysterious man lets out a shriek in pain as the Ed boys leave the mind of Double D and return back to the real world. Once the light calms down, the Man in Shadows is left alone in the darkness, floating in the darkness as he left to talk to only himself.

"_Mark my words Ed boys… the time you spent here will not be your last, and this appearance of the Man in Shadows shall not be your last as well…_"

OOO

Upon waking up from the Awakening, the Eds find themselves down on the floor of their ship, their heads and hearts racing from the experience they saw before their eyes, and their eyes are readjusting to normal sight after seeing nothing but black and white. In the middle of the boys is the tired wizard hat belonging to Ed, letting out long hard breaths as the tall Ed begins to panic and mourn for his exhausted hat. Double D slowly got himself back onto his head and heads over to the controls, taking over command once again as he notices a world and a lost children blip flashing on the radar.

"Oh Hat, please don't die on me!" sobbed Ed, rocking his deflated hat back and forth. "Who is going to keep my head warm when you pass from this world?"

"Ed, your hat is still alive," Eddy explained in a deadpan tone. "If you keep shaking him like that, you'll eventually kill him."

"But what will I do if my hat is really dying? How will I go on without knowing that there is nothing on my head and also to make snarky comments?"

The small Ed lets out a heavy sigh in response, seeing there is no hope in stopping Ed, and he decides on joining Double D at the controls. The medium Ed has his hands on his head, rubbing his temple with the heels as he tries to recover from the strange and nightmarish vision. That mysterious man appearing in his head, the man as an all-powerful warlock that is responsible for creating the Destroyer of Light, plus proving to be indestructible to all of their attacks, and then his friends aiding him to stop this man from killing the Ed. What does this man have to do with all of what's going on? Why did he appear now and challenge the Eds right in his mind?

"Double D…" The smart Ed picks his head up to find the small Ed talking to him. "You're still thinking about what just happened back there?"

"Yes" is the replied from Double D. "I just can't shake this feeling that the man we saw in my Awakening… I know of him from somewhere."

"You know that man? How do you know him and where did you see him?"

"I… I don't know. It is just occurring to me now and…" Double D takes a break from his sentence and remembers a small detail from his Awakening. "Say, how did you and Ed enter my Awakening in the first place?"

"Ed's hat was the one that put us in your dream," the greedy Ed explained, pointing over to the deflated hat. "He said that the spell he was using was a one-shot deal and it was a good thing we got in there on time."

"Of course. So you finally persuaded Normadomus into allowing you to wake me up, right?"

"Well he said that we can go into your dream but he said not to interfere with whatever is going on, unless we want to cause serious harm to you…"

"And that is when that man tried to kill me…" The smart Ed takes a small break to look over at the still grieving Ed, now resting his hat across his arms as if he is holding a dead body. "It appears that Normadomus used a tremendous amount of his magic to get you two into my Awakening."

"Hey, there was something wrong with you when you were sleeping, so we needed to find out what was going on inside of your head."

"That's perfectly fine Eddy. It definitely shows that you two do care for my safety and are willing to put yourselves into harm's way to help out a friend in need. You two did all that you could to protect me from that man when I was down, and you helped me out of my fears of this Man in Shadows. I can hardly say that even though you two are sometimes a hassle and get into a lot of trouble with others, I believe I've picked the right friends in accompanying so far on this journey of ours."

"Heh, well it's a good thing we are all in this together this far in the game," the small Ed smirked. "We'll find a way to beat Jib, get ourselves stronger and then we'll go take down that Man in Shadows!"

"I'm certain that we're not going to be meeting the Man in Shadows for anytime soon, at least I hope," said Double D, "but Jib is rather a guarantee for us. If we are going to get answers to everything that has been happening, Jib is our safe bet to go to for these answers."

"So does that mean Jib is going to be helping us?" asked Ed, now getting over his grieving when he heard about his imaginary friend.

"But even that I am not very certain of. Remember Jib is working against us and has more power than the four of us combines. The odd of us winning against Jib are slims, but getting answers we have a slightly better chance on since he might be willing enough to cooperate with us instead of his former master."

"But how are we going to find Jib when we haven't seen him anywhere on this journey besides a painting of him," Eddy pointed out.

"Yes, but I got a strange feeling that we will be seeing the Destroyer of Light once we arrive at our destination," said Double D, pointing out into space.

Coming into the Eds' view is the latest world in the boys' journey and a very unique world. There is a castle-looking building taking up a vast majority of the world, leaving only a ghost town hiding underneath. The boys can feel a strong, ominous vibe coming from the world, especially from one of the towers of the castle, and for a brief moment they can see the same symbol X.A.N.A. uses on the creatures in Lyoko and for personal use. This world, to the Ed boys, is the very world that they have been hearing about for a long time and they are now traveling to it.

"There it is boys… Hollow Bastion," proclaimed Normadomus, regaining feeling in his body and jumping up onto the console. "At long last, we have finally reached the very world everyone has been talking about. My, the place surely looks different from when I was here."

"Things do have the tendency to change over time," explained Double D, gripping onto the controls. "So now that we are finally here, our goal is to find Marie and Mark, free the Pure Hearted and defeat both Father and Zip-fly so that they can't get access to Kingdom Hearts. Now we just need to come up with a plan to help us achieve that goal."

"Huh, I completely forgot about what's-his-name," mumbled Eddy, referring to a name Double D mentioned. "So far, we haven't seen his face around the universe except back at home when he was possessed. Double D, we shouldn't be worrying about that guy. He can clearly take care of himself like he did when we were fighting that one competition, remember. Besides, we just need to rescue the Pure Hearted and we're done with this all of this."

"But don't you see that Mark is our friend," whined Ed.

"A friend who was possessed and tried to kill us!" ripped Eddy. "No matter how you looked at it, he was trying to gut with his sword of his and now he has gone to the dark side to do whatever is going on in his mind."

"I hear the dark side has cookies," Ed muttered randomly.

"Eddy, that's not all true about Mark," Double D replied. "I believe Mark is on the side of good all this time and is helping us out in every way. If he really is doing all of what he is now part of his secret plan, it may be benefitting us in some way and it might come into fruition sooner or later."

"But if he does something that either betrays us or gets one of us killed, I'm not going to hesitate to beat him up for doing so," the small Ed stated, sounding serious.

At that moment, the Gummi ship rocks violently and all of the sirens are tripped from the sudden impact. Double D takes a look at the radar and notices the enemy ship right behind them, which then switches over to a blue blip representing a missing cul-de-sac child. Eddy and Ed are already heading for their terminals, leaving Double D and Normadomus to know who their opponent is in this fight. Once inside of their terminals, the boys got their screens up and find the black Gummi ship named the _Silent Striker_ lurking behind the _Midnight Hummer_.

"Heh, it's been a long time since we last fought this guy," said Eddy, cracking his knuckles as he prepares his turrets. "It's finally time that we end this fight once and for all!"

"Hold your horses Eddy," blurted the medium Ed. "I just so happen to have a plan that will help us defeat this adversary and it involves leading him into Hollow Bastion and beating him within the world."

"Oh yeah, since his ship won't be hiding in the darkness, leaving him open to shoot at in the bright sky! Double D, I'm never getting tired of your ideas!"

"Zippity-a-do-da!" shouted Ed, firing off one Gravity round and hitting the black Gummi ship dead on.

"Way to go Ed!" the small Ed stated excitedly, grabbing onto his controls and starts firing away with his turrets.

The two Gummi ships begin their trades of fire, with Fire bullets filling up the vast blackness of space, Blizzard shells barreling and barely hitting the Eds and Gravity shells completely missing the black ship. Double D pushes down on the throttle to get the _Midnight Hummer_ into Hollow Bastion's atmosphere, luring the _Silent Striker_ in as the black ship picks its speed up as well. The plan is going smoothly as the Eds can finally see the black Gummi ship clearly, meaning they have a better chance of taking the ship down. However, the pilot is a skilled fighter and he can outmaneuver all of the Eds' attacks.

An abandoned town is right below of the two ships, with the building going into a wide variety of commercial and residential establishments, all of them void of people and dotting the land below. Metallic Heartless, Shadows and Darkballs scan every inch of the town for any remaining forms of life, seeking for those beating hearts to fill their ravenous appetite. Roaring above the Heartless, the two dueling Gummi ships continue on in their dogfight to see which one of them is going to hit the ground in defeat. The _Midnight Hummer_ unleashes a barrage of Fire and Gravity rounds at the _Silent Striker_, but the black Gummi ship skillfully dodges each and every with loops, rolls and dives.

The _Silent Striker_ takes its Fire and Blizzard barrels and locks them onto the Eds, follow by unloading and unleashing everything the pilot has on him. Double D uses his piloting skills to dodge the Blizzard rounds, Eddy uses his cannons to shoot out the incoming Fire rounds, and Ed uses his Gravity round to act as a counterattack on the missed rounds or at the Gummi ship. Both Gummi ships are at a stalemate thanks to both ships being equal in piloting and weaponry, and the _Silent Striker_ decides upon to cut down on its speed and descend down to the ground.

"Oh yeah, we got him on the run guys!" stated Eddy excitedly, now knowing they have won this match.

"Uh Eddy, I don't think we did any sort of damage that requires him to retreat from this fight," Double D noted.

"Maybe he just needs to refuel."

"Whatever the case is, we have reached our next destination," the smart Ed replied. "Get yourselves ready gentlemen, because we got ourselves a fight ahead."

The _Midnight Hummer_ slows down and begins to descend closer to the ground. Once the ship touches the earth, the bay door opens once again and the Eds stroll out to check around their settings to see what the talk is about Hollow Bastion. As far as the eye can see, the ground is strangely purple and barren of any life, with no plants or animals covering the dusty earth, and the Eds can see the ghost town faintly resting over the horizon. This is the world that is called Hollow Bastion and the Eds can get an understanding why the people call this world so.

"Well Ed, I guess we were wrong about this place after all," said Eddy, remembering a line he once said some time ago.

"I told you this place existed," replied the tall Ed, proud of being right, and he eyes around his setting to search for any activity. "… Uh, where did Double D run off to?"

The greedy Ed perks himself up and gives a few good sweeps around the area to see what the tall Ed is talking about. From what he is seeing at every angle, there is a lack of a certain smart Ed boy in his sight, telling the small boy that he went missing. The two Eds break up and start to check around the area of the _Midnight Hummer_ to go look for their missing friend, to make sure that he did not get himself killed or eaten by the Heartless. Then comes a small cry emitting from a crack and the Eds rush over to the crack in the ground to find a set of stairs leading down into a crevice.

Ed immediately takes the lead heads down the stairs, only to then trip on the sixth stair, as Eddy watches from above as his friend tumbles down the stair. Walking carefully, the small Ed follows the path that his friend has taken, and the time to get to the bottom did not take him long, as he finds the fallen Ed with his bottom in the air and clearly not hurt from the fall. At the bottom of the stairs, the two Eds can see Double D among some other people at his side, and the two boys rush over to find these new people are the same that they met back in Traverse Town.

"Well now, isn't this quite a surprise," said Eddy. "What exactly brings you guys all of the way out here?"

The smart Ed mutters "déjà vu" under his breath as the four children at his side known as Lyoko Warriors turn to face the two newcomers. "Hello there," said Jérémie. "Do you two recall that Aelita never came out of the Virtualization Chambers after you? Well when we got word about how the last Pure Hearted was heading to Hollow Bastion, Dexter and TOM got us a Gummi ship prepared for us and we flew out here to help find Aelita and also the Pure Hearted."

"We know that you three have been busy looking for the Pure Hearted, so we'll be nice enough to carry the Pure Hearted back to their worlds when you free them," added Yumi, wearing an all black attire.

"Of course there is the fact that we still have to deal with X.A.N.A. and the Heartless while we're here," replied Ulrich, who is wearing a green khaki attire.

"So once we fix the X.A.N.A. problem, we'll catch up to you wherever you are in the factory and join you to free the others," added Odd, looking very similar to his Lyoko form.

"OK, so all we need to do is to go on in, beat up any Heartless that we see, make a clear path for you guys, and head on up to wherever the Pure Hearted are and free them," Eddy explained in one go. "That sounds easy enough, if we know what kind of Heartless we're dealing with."

"True, but there is also the fact that Father may be here as well," Double D pointed out. "We haven't seen the _Absolution_ outside in space so we don't know if he's here, but there is that possibility. Plus, we don't know how powerful he is, let alone if he going to be alone."

"Well, there is that Nobody we have been hearing about, along with some of the strongest Heartless roaming these hallways and X.A.N.A. controlling every inch of the building," said Jérémie, looking everything over on his laptop, "so it's going to be a hard climb up to the where you're going to be heading."

"Well, the Heartless have appear to be getting stronger throughout this journey as we get further out into the universe," said the smart Ed, "but how exactly is a computer program going to affect inside of this place?"

"You guys haven't been to Hollow Bastion before, have you?" asked Odd, with Ed raising his arm up straight high and Double D giving a "not sure" gesture. "Well then, it's time that we show you the true Hollow Bastion."

The four Lyoko Warriors lead the Eds forward and the three boys are in awe when they notice the massive building before them. The structure is in the shape of a castle, with all of its building material is made out of solid metal. The outer design is in the works of steampunk, with brass making up the walls, copper piping bellowing out hot steam, and even a few gears cranking away on the walls. The whole building appears to be a living, breathing machine with everything going on, despite being resting on a floating rock high above the children. With waterfalls raining down from the castle, the Eds stare wide-eyed as the Lyoko Warriors close in to get a better look.

"Well, there it is gentlemen," started Jérémie, "Hollow Bastion."

"Well it's safe to say that this is far greater than what I have been picturing in my mind," Double D mumbled.

"Somewhere out there, a boy is enjoying every second of this scene," Eddy muttered.

"I remember there was something else hanging out in front besides that," pondering Ed. "How long was that symbol hanging there anyway?"

The Lyoko Warriors take a good look at what Ed is talking about and they notice in horror as the building they once called home is taken over by a computer program, with the symbol of X.A.N.A. made out of solid brass is covering up the Heartless symbol that was once part of this castle. None of the children can remember seeing this symbol on the castle before, but they know that X.A.N.A. has taken full control of Hollow Bastion and is ready to take anyone bold enough to wonder through the halls of this former factory.

"I swear I hadn't seen that symbol here before," continued Ed, scratching his head as he tries to remember his last time here on this world.

"So, it appears that X.A.N.A. has taken over the entire castle," said Double D. "If I were a computer program such as that, I wouldn't mind being able to have open access to such a beautiful building such as this."

"I wouldn't worry about that," said Jérémie, checking his laptop. "According to this, X.A.N.A. rigged the entire building with traps and altered Heartless."

"Altered Heartless?" echoed Odd, sounding a bit worried. "You're saying is that the Heartless are modified?"

"That's another way of putting it," the smart Ed simplified. "We actually did fought against something like that in Jump City, but those Heartless were fused together and everything was one giant mind screw."

"So we're going up against even stronger Heartless and possible death traps inside?" said Yumi, sounding not very confident about their latest situation.

"Plus there is that chance Father is here as well," Normadomus pointed out. "If this X.A.N.A. wasn't a problem for all of us, Father will be the only threat to worry about."

"And the numerous amounts of Heartless roaming around the halls and also that Nobody," said Ulrich. "If they're anything is the same like pre-X.A.N.A, this shouldn't be too hard for us."

"Yeah, for you guys," grumbled the small Ed.

"Our only option now is for us to scout ahead and try to shut things down," said Jérémie. "Once we gain access through X.A.N.A.'s defenses, you should have access to the main lab in the upper levels, where Father might be at."

"And how exactly are we going to get up there?" asked Eddy.

"There are some elevators that should help you to get up to the lab," Yumi replied. "Of course, the Heartless are a lot more abundant here and will strike without warning, so have your weapons out at all times."

"Finally, an elevator ride that's exciting!" the greedy Ed stated excitedly.

"Uh Eddy, we could be ambush on one of those elevators," Double D pointed out.

"Yeah, so? How many elevators have you been on that has at least an ounce of excitement?"

"Ooh, ooh, allow me to answer!" shouted Ed, before flashing a hand sign. "Zero!"

"Exactly, Double D."

The smart Ed can only sigh in response. He knows that he is dealing with the same old Eddy he has been friends with from the cul-de-sac. Rather so, this is now their moment to get the Pure Hearted and put a stop to Father's plans, so the children got to work making their way up to Hollow Bastion. There are elevator-like rocks floating around and the children step on each one of them, taking these rocks across the crevice as they inch closer to the entrance of the castle.

Once they got onto a floating rock with a bridge reaching towards the castle, there is another rock that holds an arch, and on the other side are five fallen children. The group rushes over to check up on the children to see if they are alright, and Double D begins to feel ill as he collapses onto his knees and falls down onto the ground. Ed picks his friend and checks his vitals, feeling that the smart Ed is still alive, but his eyes are filling up with static as a shadow looms over the group and the sound of a sword being unsheathed.

"Well, well, isn't this a surprise to be seeing all of you here," said the voice of Mask, sitting up on the arch. "And here we have the Ed boys, with one of you already out of commission."

"Hey, what did you do to Double D?" barked Eddy.

"Oh, I didn't do anything to the poor boy. He has been hit with a vision, but of what I'm not sure of. I heard from Zip-fly that he was hit the hardest from that explosion in Ooo, so that might be a side-effect to that explosion."

"Who are you and what did you do to these kids?" asked Jérémie.

"The five kids before you are from a sector on this world," Mask explained, taking his katana and placing the blunt edge on his shoulder. "They are part of a universal group call the Kids Next Door, and I heard that these five are some of the best out there. However, I had my orders from Father to prevent these five from interfering with his plans, so I took actions and beaten them here. Don't worry; they aren't dead. At least I hope not."

"You're a monster!" growled Eddy. "I thought you were a friend when you helped us and not killing children?"

"It was never my intention of killing anyone younger than me and I do oppose such an obligation, but I was ordered to prevent them from getting inside of Hollow Bastion, so I used only my hands and feet to deal with the intruder. And like I said, they aren't dead; I'm just trying to prevent them from getting inside."

"Then how about you like if I do this?" The small Ed takes his shield and tosses it up to the masked teen, but the boy unfolds his arm and blocks the incoming attack with his sword, causing the shield to drop to the ground. Mask jumps from his perch and lands on the other end of the rock, his coat breezing in the wind and silent as his approach, as the teen keeps his back on the children.

"Tell me Eddy, how much hatred are you feeling towards me?" he asked. "Do you feel like doing the deed and kill me on the spot, or do you feel the need to just punch me to let your anger go? Either way, you will never fill satisfy after all that has occurred."

"You… you had betrayed all of us," the small Ed stated. "Not only had you tried to kill us back home, but here you are with not only Double D down but also kids you don't know at your feet! Is there anything you won't step down to?"

"Eddy, Eddy, Eddy, didn't I say they aren't dead or is that the adrenaline talking for you?" Mask questioned. "I am only trying to save the girl that I hold dear to me from the man that I work with, to then give him what he desires most as I try to foil his plans before his eyes. My plan does not involve you and I am ordered to prevent the lot of you from entering Hollow Bastion. Now then, I must require one more thing and then I will take my leave."

The masked teen walks over the fallen boy of the local children as he drops down on his knees, touches Double D on the head and causes the Keyblade to come out into his hand. Mask grabs Joker's Wild and holds it within his hand to get a good feeling of it, before the Keyblade reverts to its normal state as Kingdom Key. Now that the teen has the Keyblade Father has been seeking, he turns towards the entrance and begin walking towards the door, only to have the Keyblade to disappear from his hand and enter Double D's.

"Well, isn't this a surprise," the teen said. "It seems the Keyblade doesn't want to choose me for its master. No matter, it appears I can't take Double D with me due to you, so I must take my leave. If you are brave enough to venture through these walls, try to keep up with me. Oh, and I do warn you of the Neoshadows."

Mask instantly disappears from the group's view, leaving Double D to wake up from his ill state and Eddy growling under his breath. The smart Ed asks what just happened to them while he was out and Ed asks Double D about what he saw in his vision, and everyone starts hearing groans coming from the children that have fallen before the masked teen. The five children got back up onto their feet, moaning and groaning about the pain, and they turn around to find the group that was helping them, only for the local children to quickly switch over to battle position, pulling out weapons made out of household materials.

"All right teenagers, hands where we can see them," a bald boy wearing a red shirt, khaki shorts, brown shoes and sunglasses ordered.

"Whoa, hold on there!" stated Odd. "We were just trying to help you out!"

"Yeah right, just tell that to that one cruddy teen that knocked us out," an Australian-accented kid with a bowled blonde cut, an orange hoodie, blue jeans and normal running shoes replied, aiming a make-shift rifle at the group.

"Unless you want to end up down at the bottom, I suggest you walk back and take a rock back down," a pudgy boy in an aviator hat and goggles, light-blue shirt and brown pants ordered.

"Will you five just hold on for a second," said Yumi. "We do have rights to go inside of this place and we know who you five are."

"Oh yeah, and what makes you so special?" a black girl with a blue shirt covering most of her body, white shoes, some accessories, and a red hat covering her eyes asked.

"Aelita has been kidnapped by Father and he is holding her inside of the factory," explained Jérémie, hoping this is their ticket in. "If we don't get inside of Hollow Bastion, who knows what Father is going to do?"

"Wait, are you talking about that one pink-haired girl that I occasionally hang out with?" a Japanese-looking girl wearing a long-sleeved girl that is also covering most of her body and black shoes.

"Hold on team," said the bald kid, ordering the others to lower their weapons. "Are you four the Lyoko Warriors?"

"Yes it us," replied Ulrich. "How could you forget who we are since we hang out here all the time?"

"Well, that masked kid really knocked us hard in the back of the head," the pudgy boy answered, "so our minds aren't really back to normal after waking up."

"There's also those three we haven't seen around here before," said the Australian. "They look like teenagers and I say we blast them."

"Not so fast Numbuh Four," the bald kid ordered. "Don't you see what he is holding in his hand there? That key-shaped weapon of his?"

"Isn't that a Keyblade we keep hearing about in school?" the black girl asked, scratching her head. "I thought those things were things of legends."

"They are unless you are chosen by one of those things," said the pudgy boy. "If that Keyblade has chosen him, then that means he is a hero from another world!"

"Oh cool, a real hero wielding a Keyblade!" the Japanese girl squealed, her eyes sparkling as she stares at Double D, making him feel unease.

"Well, I would like to apologize for me and for my team," said the bald kid, bowing before the rescue group. "To the new kids, I am Numbuh One of Sector V. The boy to my right is Numbuh Two…"

"How's it going," the pudgy boy replied, giving a friendly wave.

"And on his right is Numbuh Three…"

"Can you please tell me on how you got the Keyblade?" the girl asked, fangirling over Double D for bearing the very weapon.

"And to my left is Numbuh Four…" The Australian gives a firm nod to the group, "and finally Numbuh Five…"

"Please to meet you," the black girl responded, tipping her hat slightly. "So what brings you all the way up here, besides joining the Lyoko Warriors in rescuing Aelita?"

"Well it involves rescuing other people as well called the Pure Hearted," explained Double D. "These fine people are going to help us out by going ahead and shut the whole place down of X.A.N.A. so we don't get squished by his traps he laid out for us."

"That does seems to be a problem for you," said the bald boy named Numbuh One. "If it's anything to pay you back, we'll go ahead and take care of any Heartless that may get in your way, so that way your climb isn't that hard as it is already."

"Finally, a true break we have been searching for!" stated Eddy. "Not only are we not going to worry about being killed by a building, but also the less amount of Heartless we get to face!"

"We'll scout on ahead and get to work clearing any Heartless in our way," said Numbuh One, with the other operatives already taking the lead. "We'll meet up with you eventually, perhaps in the main labs, so be careful on any rogue Heartless or Father if you see him."

With his warning, Numbuh One takes off and joins his team as they head down the path leading towards the main entrance of Hollow Bastion. There are some small flare ups of Heartless where Sector V is but the kids took care of the Heartless as they got the doors open and enter the building. Jérémie and the other Lyoko Warriors begin to make their way towards the castle, but head in a different direction, as the computer boy explains that the Control Room and the Scanner Room is down below the castle.

"Oh, and I don't want to forget about this," said Double D, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the communicator he received back in Jump City. "Can you guys give us a call on this in case we need to get word on what's going on your end?"

Jérémie takes the communicator and he gives the device a few looks over to see if there is something he can do to tweak it. Upon finding what he is looking for, the boy quickly tweaks the Ed's device and hands the communicator back over in prime condition. "I've imputed my cell phone number and also a link from my computer if I need to contact you," he explained. "I'll give you a call when we deactivate the tower here and put X.A.N.A. to rest."

The smart Ed gives a firm nod to Jérémie as the boy takes off to catch up with his friend and take an elevator down to get to the scanners deep below the castle. The Ed pockets the communicator and his friends join him at his side as the three Eds take one good look of the exterior as they can now start their journey through the halls of Hollow Bastion. As they cross the bridge from the rock they are on over to the castle, a Heartless inside of a metallic body, two rods at its side and a ring floating around its bottom spots the boys from afar and lets out a ringing sound, stopping the Eds in their tracks as Heartless appear right before them.

"Ed, get that Heartless up there!" ordered Double D, pointing up to the metallic Heartless.

Ed twirls his staff and fires a long fireball right at the Heartless, knocking it down from the sky and burning it up despite its hard exterior. Several Heartless emerge in front of the Eds and Normadomus lets out a groan when two Heartless take shape. There is one Heartless that is a Large Body in gold and silver armor, two Heartless in full armor suits and wielding a sword bigger than them, a couple of Soldiers, one Darkball, and two large blue Heartless carrying very large shields with a demonic dog's face on them and each have a very thick arm.

"Great, first we have that Surveillance Robot ratting on us and now we got to deal with Defenders?" Normadomus complained. "Whoever made this kind of Heartless needs to be staked and lit on fire for creating such a pain in our exterior."

"Wow… just, wow," said the greedy Ed flatly.

"What? I dislike this kind of Heartless. Those shields of theirs are not only impossible to get rid of, but they make it hard to get around them. They're Large Bodies with a smarter brain."

"But what about that Large Body in the armor?" asked Double D.

"Oh that Large Armor… yeah all you need to do is aim for their head with whatever, but it's at best we knock it over if you want to deal the best damage."

"Then I got myself an idea," said Eddy, taking his shield and yo-yo out to prepare for that plan.

One of the Defenders takes its shield and prepares it to use a Fire spell from the shield's mouth. The Eds dodge the incoming fireball as Eddy dives behind the Heartless and prepares his yo-yo for his plan. The Darkball eyes the Ed and launches itself right at the boy, only to receive the cutting edge of the small Ed's shield. The other two Eds are busy distracting the other Heartless from Eddy with magic spells and the occasional Distraction to advert their attention away from the small Ed. The Heartless are strong and smart, but the Eds are doing their best to keep the Heartless busy from Eddy.

Once Eddy is done with his preparation, he takes the string of his yo-yo and pulls back far enough as he can pull. The other Defender turns around to find out what the small Ed is trying to do and it takes its shield to bite down on the string, but Eddy launches from his yo-yo. Taking his shield, he got to spinning himself around as a drill and he slams into the Large Armor, causing the large Heartless to trip and land on top of a Defender and other smaller Heartless. Now down on its bell, Double D charges in and uses his Keyblade to beat the Large Armor in the head, before delivering the final blow and causing the Heartless to disappear.

The only Heartless remaining is the other Defender and it calls for backup as two wizard-like Heartless emerges from thin air and prepare their staffs for battle. The Wizards casts a Blizzard and a Thunder spell, both spells missing the Eds, and Ed branches away from the others to focus on the Defender as Eddy and Double D take on the Wizards. The tall Ed charges up for a Thundara attack and unleash his powerful spell, but one Wizard swoops in and intercepts the attack, absorbing the damage and adding the power to its health. The small Ed wraps his yo-yo around the Wizard and draws the Heartless in, bringing the magic Heartless in to be cut by the Ed's shield.

Now down to two, Double D begins to think over a strategy into how they can beat these Heartless. He just learned that the Wizard cannot be harm by any magic spell, and the Defender has senses that will cover every part, even if there are two Eds covering the front and back. So deciding upon on one plan, he and Eddy prepare their weapons as Ed tries again at using Thundara to bring the Defender down. Both the small and smart Ed defeat the Wizard in one blow, and Ed unleashes his devastating lightning attack at the Defender, blowing the Heartless away from its shield and both beings disappear into thin air.

Finally clear of Heartless, the Eds look towards the two towering doors that make up the entrance. Since they know all they have been seeking for waits inside, the boys take off running for the entrance to begin the long and tedious climb up to Father and the Pure Hearted. Watching up from above, a Surveillance Robot keeps its eye peel on the Eds as the Heartless transfer all that its seeing to a room deep inside the castle. Within this room, Father is watching from every angle of Hollow Bastion, keeping his eyes on not only the Eds, but the Lyoko Warriors and Sector V.

"Well now, it appears that we have quite a party going on below," said Father. "It's just too bad that I didn't organize this little shindig. Zip-fly…"

"Yes Father?" the Nobody answered.

"Get Mask and have the two of you dispose our guests," the shadow man replied. "I don't want to have interruptions for the opening of the Door."

"Yes… Father."

OOO

While the outside of Hollow Bastion is a spectacle in of itself, the inside is another story. The castle shows its true nature of being another world inside of just this building, and this is just the foyer. With a large opening, several pipes serving as columns, chandelier made out copper plating and a stone layout, the first room is a feast for the eyes. Along with the beauty comes some decorations of plants and suits of armor line the walls, and paintings containing different people hang up for people to wonder their creations.

"Man, if this Father wasn't a bad guy, this place would be a sweet place to stay in," said Eddy.

"Indeed Eddy," replied Double D. "He surely keeps this place clean from dust with only Heartless and what he has remaining."

"Uh, are we done sightseeing?" asked Normadomus. "Don't we have a mission here, or are we going to be attacked by wandering Heartless?"

The three Eds snap back to normal as they remember what they came here for. The boys begin to wonder what they are going to do since they have nothing that will point them in the direction of their target, until they feel the doors behind them slam shut. The Ed boys look behind and watch the locks on the door seal themselves, noticing that the main gear bears X.A.N.A's mark and the computer program is now preventing not only the Eds from escaping, but Sector V as well. Just as the boys begin to start climbing, a familiar foe appears on the railing of the second floor.

"So, it looks like the castle has sealed us inside," said Mask, having his sword drawn and ready for combat. "It's such a shame really, since Father really wanted to tame X.A.N.A. and use it to help with unlocking the Door."

"Door?" echoed Eddy. "What, you mean this door?"

"No, the Door to Darkness. This is the very door that is guarding the path to the Realm of Darkness, where Kingdom Hearts lies. Father is hoping of using the Pure Hearted we have collected to unveil and unlock this door so we can pass through and enter the Realm of Darkness."

"That nonsense!" stated Ed's hat. "There haven't been any attempts by mankind of ever getting into the Realm of Darkness! Father doesn't know what he is trying to do!"

"Really? Well Father is using old blueprints designed by a former owner of this castle and has worked hard to create the portal. But sadly it has yet to work because he was missing the Pure Hearted and the Keyblade."

"But why is he working on this now when he knows he doesn't have my Keyblade?" stated Double D.

"He just wants to see if the machine will work," the masked teen replied. "If it works, then all he needs is the Keyblade to open the door and unlock the path. If it doesn't, then…"

"He's endangering lives here!" stated the hat. "Are you and Father willing to put people's lives on the line all for some fantasy that can never be achieved?"

"It's a risk that I'm not taking, but Father is. I don't like this as much as you, but I want this to go smoothly so I can get my love back."

The small Ed decides not to listen to any more of what Mask has to say and he chunks his shield at the teen, only for the teen to block the attack with his sword. Ed casts Fire at the masked teen, causing the teen to jump up from the railing and land on the same floor as the Eds. The three boys got themselves ready for the inevitable fight with their former friend as the teen masterfully swings his weapon around his body, missing cutting himself by inches as the room shakes from whatever X.A.N.A. is planning.

"Finally, after waiting for so long," said Mask, raising his katana up, "it's time that we decide who is the strongest among the four of us. It's either going to be the three of you, or lonely me."

Eddy's anger empowers him as he charges at Mask and takes the first blow, using the sharp edge of his shield to aid him, as Mask jumps back and watches a panel from the floor rises up and guts Eddy in the stomach. The small Ed is knocked back as the teen jumps onto the panel and watches Double D close in to help out in this fight. The two sword-wielders collide and the two begin dueling with their blades, each equally match as Eddy recovers from his fall and watches his friend take on Mask. There is no telling who is winning between Double D and Mask but the two warriors break up as armor busts aim in their directions and fire lasers from the visor.

Both Double D and Mask dive down in time as the lasers collide, quickly canceling out as both warriors got back on their feet and continue on dueling. Mask leads the smart Ed to the center of the foyer, where they are both open for any attack, and Ed takes his staff to knock the teen in the back of the head. When the masked teen turn around, a Wizard appears from above and casts Thunder down on the fighters, hitting only Mask as the teen shakes off his attack and Eddy destroying the Heartless.

Now feeling some danger in the room they are in, Mask takes off down the hallway on the first floor, prompting the Eds to give chase to him. They burst down the hallway after the traitor, only to walk into some of X.A.N.A's traps. With the four of them struggling to get around closing walls, opening floors, spikes and hot steam, the boys did their best to prevent getting any sort of damage. The run feels like an eternity but the four did eventually escape the trap-laden hallway into another large room of beauty and their exit shutting right behind them.

Mask twirls his katana around one time before locking the blade onto Ed's staff, who then starts to block every one of his attacks. Normadomus unzips his mouth and blasts an Aeroga at the teen, knocking him away from the Ed as the boy prepares to use his magic. However the floor begins to rumble and the setting begins to descend as the fighters check to find themselves on an elevator. Mask takes his katana and swings it at a distracted Ed, but his hat warns him of the incoming attack and blocks with his staff.

Shadows emerge from the floor and begin their assault on all four of the boys, not even taking into considering that Mask is working for Father. The Eds and Mask decide on destroying the attacking Heartless to get them out of the way, all while using a few of them to take each other out. Along with the Shadows are Soldiers, Large Armors, Defenders and the knight-like Heartless called Armored Knight, each one of them skillful enough to dodge most of the boys' attack and distract them from their real goal. But the Heartless have yet to prove themselves smart against X.A.N.A's tricks, which uses hidden pendulums and lifting panels to destroy the Heartless.

The elevator comes to a stop and several moving platforms are going all over the high room. Mask jumps onto one and leaves the Eds behind, and Eddy decides on using his yo-yo on flying Surveillance Robots and uses them to fling him over to where the traitor is. Ed and Double D take the moving platforms across like Mask but they can see that Eddy has caught up with their opponent and is about to throw his shield down… just as Mask steps out of the way and allows the small Ed to land on an unstable platform, making him go all of the way back to the first floor. The angry Ed flings his yo-yo and surprisingly grabs onto Mask's arm, which he then swings himself through the air and land on the platform the teen is on.

The small Ed takes his yo-yo and unwraps it from Mask's arm, reeling the toy all around the platform as the teen sneaks in to deliver his counterattack. Eddy prepares his shield and stops the katana before the blade can do any harm. The two begin to trade blows despite Eddy's weapon of choice, and the small Ed got a few hits in with his fists. Mask then forms a fist of his own and jabs Eddy into the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and the teen sweeps the Ed across the platforms to land farther away from the katana-wielding masked teen.

Just as Mask got himself settle, he felt the heat of an incoming Fire heading right for his back and he dodges the fireball by inches, watching part of his clothes singed as the fireball travels on to hit the far end of the room. Double D and Ed close in on their target and the smart Ed locks his Keyblade with the katana once again, getting both sword wielders the chance to duel once again. Ed is waiting for a perfect moment to strike, when an armored Heartless with wings silently flies up and knocks the boy on the back of the head.

More Heartless appear around the Eds and Mask, with new types appearing on this stage, as the floor beneath Double D, Ed and Mask. The three are sent falling down to the ground fall below, leaving Eddy up on the moving platforms and figuring out what to do. He takes his shield and dives down towards the others, spinning like a drill, and a few flying Heartless decide to give chase after the boys. Double D and Mask continue to brawl against each other s Ed and Eddy deal with the surrounding Heartless to prevent the dueling swordsmen from getting any more damage than needed.

There is strangely a large hole in the ground to which the boys fell down into and they continue to fall as they leave the room and head to the next. Hot steam bellows out of pipes to singe the boys, along with pipes breaking off, leaving the Eds and Mask to weave through these traps once again. The fall seem to be taking its time, as Double D begins to calculate about how long it will take for the Eds to reach the bottom of the rock the castle is sitting on and head towards the ground far below.

However and strangely, the end leads to outside of the castle and the four boys are flying out from the hallway and out into the open. Mask lands with grace, skidding across the tiled floor as he watches the Eds fly off towards the edge of the castle. Eddy takes his yo-yo and flings it towards Ed, using his weight to swing the boys back down to earth, as Double D grabs onto Eddy and joins the ride. All three Ed crash into the metal wall of the castle, grateful that they are not going to go falling to their doom, and they can hear the sounds of footsteps coming up from right behind.

Mask takes a swing at the Eds with his katana, missing the boys as they dodge out of the way. The blade makes contact with a pipe and slices it open, unleashing hot steam as the teen backs away from the hazard. The masked teen spins his weapon and swings around to strike the nearest Ed, Double D, and the two continue to fight as Eddy steps in to do some damage. Ed and Normadomus also step in to use their magic, alternating from White and Black Magic as their spells miss their intention target.

One Surveillance Robot rounds the castle and spies the battle taking place, sending out a signal for Heartless to approach the Eds. However, only one solitary Heartless swoops by and dives down into the fight with his talons reaching to grab a body. The boys stop their fighting to find a large flying Heartless close to the appearance of the Dustflier the Eds saw earlier, but the coloring is different shades of red for this Heartless. The creature lands onto a rail and turns around to look down at the fighters like a predator watches its prey.

The boys prepare their weapons, waiting for this Heartless to strike, and they can feel the strong presence emitting from this particular Heartless. Gusting wind to lift itself up, the Heartless takes off and bombs down at the boys, diving in head first to get at its prey. Eddy steps in front and blocks the flying creature with his shield, halting the Heartless to a stop as Double D and Mark take their weapons and start striking at the Heartless. Tiles pop up from the floor and two robotic claws emerge in the opening, and these claws latch onto the two swordsmen to stop them in their tracks.

The Heartless, which Normadomus points out to be a Wyvern, uses all of its strength to knock the small Ed down and it continues its flight as the Heartless reaches its peak and turns around to stare down at the fight. Eddy got back up on his feet and prepares his shield to throw, but he notices a circular shadow getting bigger at his feet. Ed's hat pushes the greedy Ed out of the way with a Gravity to prevent the boy from getting hurt by a fallen cannonball. Eddy looks up and around the castle's walls to seek out where the fire came from, only to spy several cannon-like Heartless up on the edge of the castle, aiming their barrels down at the battlefield.

Now finding their surroundings getting dangerous, Mask spots a path he can take and he flees before he can get hurt. The greedy Ed once again starts his chase after the traitor to get at him, follow by his friends so that they can keep up with him. The path the boys are taking is constructed with copper pipes and a few gears cranking on the sides. Some of the pipes rumble and leak out steam, while the gears are spinning faster as the boys got close to each one. Then there are the cannon Heartless each taking their turns raining cannonballs down on the Eds and Mask in hopes of doing some sort of damage.

Now officially tired of what is been going on, Mask reaches solid ground and prepares his katana ready to kill. He watches the Eds get onto the same ground, as well as the chasing Wyvern that wants to get at their hearts. Quickly telling the Eds about how to deal with the cannon Heartless and the Wyvern, the masked teen got to work dealing with the cannons as the Ed boys focus their attention on the flying Heartless. Now deciding on a temporary truce, the fighters break off to go fight their respective Heartless as the Wyvern gets itself ready for the fight.

With its torn wings ready to fly, the Wyvern soars up and performs a flip as the added speed aids the creature down to the field. Talons are ready to claw at the Eds and its beak ready to tear at anything that comes near, and the Eds wait patiently for the exact moment to strike. The Wyvern reaches its target but Eddy blocks the Heartless with his shield, skidding across the battlefield as his friends did their best to stop this Heartless. The Wyvern lifts its head up and knocks Eddy back with its talons, follow by sweeping Double D and Ed with its tail as the Heartless tries to gain the better advantage of this fight.

Mask is also having a hard time with the cannon Heartless hanging from far up on the castle's walls. With a large amount firing at once, the teen is having a hard time dodging their attacks while trying to find a way to knock their attacks back. His only option at the moment is to use his sword as a bat and knock the fire back, but each round that is fired are explosives and the teen is getting beaten up faster than expected. Mask takes a look over towards the Eds to find that they are having a hard time with the Wyvern, as the Heartless is clearly proving itself to be stronger than the Eds, but the boys are doing some damage to the Heartless than what Mask is doing.

"_That is enough Mask_," boomed the voice of Father.

The fighting comes to a stop as the Eds and Mask look around to find where the source of the voice came from. "_You have done well to loosen these boys up_," the shadow man continued, "_so I'll be taking them off your hands. I do not require your services anymore for today…_"

"I see," the masked teen muttered, sheathing his sword. He looks towards the boys in question, appearing to be concern for the three, but the mask he wears conceals his true feelings towards the Eds. The teen lets out a sigh and turns his back towards the Eds, allowing the wind to blow his coattails. "Just a warning to you three," he started, "Father is not going to be easy. Beware his fires."

The Ed boys can feel themselves being teleported away, since they are very familiar with this feeling before, and the boys disappear from the field to leave Mask alone with the Heartless. The Wyvern lands a few feet away from the teen and the boy looks up to find the cannon Heartless preparing to fire down on the teen. The Heartless wait in anticipation, watching their prey to make his move, as Mask keeps his hand near his katana in case he needs to draw his weapon. The Wyvern lifts up and charges towards Mask, prompting him to fight once again, and he takes off to continue fighting the Heartless.

Somewhere in the middle and high up in the castle, the Ed boys materialize inside of a spacious room decorated to an office appearance. The lights are dimmed, with only candles flickering on the walls as the boys wonder why they are teleported here in the first place. They then can hear the sound of clapping coming from the opposite end of the room, and a large office chair spins around to reveal the shadow man in charge of it all: Father.

"Well, well, well, it looks like the moment has finally arrived," said Father, getting up from his chair. "My, you three have grown since arriving in Traverse Town so many months ago. It seems like you three were just scared little boys but now here you are as men trying to stop me from pursuing any further into getting Kingdom Hearts."

"OK, why on earth are you acting so fatherly on us," Eddy asked, a little disturbed by this fact.

"Oh that? Well I am called Father for a reason. You really don't think that I can't behave like a father to all of the children in the universe?"

"Well, that is something that I like to see," muttered Double D.

"But I digress on that. The reason I brought you three up here in my personal study is so that I can personally dispose of you," said Father. "As you know, you came all of this way to free the Pure Hearted from their prisons and bring them back to their worlds, all while stopping me from getting the Door to Darkness open and going to find Kingdom Hearts. Well, that is going to change here…"

"What? Is it that we're going to kick your sorry behind and we get the Pure Hearted?" asked the greedy Ed.

"No!" barked Father, his hands flaring up. "I am going to burn you three, claim the Keyblade and open that portal!"

"I'll have you know that I know Water and I'm not afraid to use it!" stated Ed, aiming the tip of his staff at the shadow man.

"Uh, since when was the last time that we ever heard of that spell on this journey?" his hat whispered.

There is a roar coming from Father as he throws a fireball at the tall Ed, making the boy dodge the attack before he gets burn. "We're not playing any more games here," the man stated. "This here is the real deal and if you're going to behave like children, I'm not going to hold back on my disciplining! I also made sure to get a firewall going for this room so X.A.N.A. won't interfere with this fight, meaning there is no one that is going to save you three now."

"Seriously, who writes some of these lines?" the small Ed grumbled.

"I'm impressed how Father could create a firewall strong enough to block XANA out of this room," said Double D.

"The man has a history saying he created a machine that transformed five children into perfect little kids, permanently brainwashing them," said Normadomus. "If he is capable of doing that, then perhaps stopping a computer program capable of controlling an entire castle _and_ make a gateway to the Realm of Darkness is not out of his league. He is truly a threat looking out for."

Father charges up the fire in his hands to get them bigger and he then proceeds to throw the fireballs, tossing them at the Eds to get the fight started. The three boys dodge out of the way to prevent getting burn by the fire, and they notice the furniture being dropped down into the floor, as Father does not want to burn his furniture and also to draw the Eds out into the open. Ed wants to use his own Fire spell on the shadow man, but he could counter that attack or absorb the flames, so he goes for his Shadara in hopes of blinding the man.

While being distracted by the shadow attack, Eddy got close to Father and prepares his shield to cut. Father notices the small Ed closing in and the man flares his entire body up, causing the Ed to back off from the intense heat and to block a stream of fire aiming right at him. Jumping towards the side, Eddy notices his shield is on fire and he takes advantage of that by tossing it at Father, who only then catches the shield with his hands. Eddy is in awe by how he can stop the shield as the shadow man absorbs the flames onto his suit and tosses the shield back at the Ed.

Double D is next up to attack, and he prepares his Keyblade to use his frozen Blizzard spell. Creating a large crystal of ice before the shadow, the smart Ed waits for his spell to build up in pressure that will inflict damage to Father, but the man takes his fiery hands and starts melting the ice. Father uses all of his fire to melt the Blizzard spell down, but he does not suspect the building pressure inside, which is then release and knocking the man towards closest wall. The flames covering the power suit slowly begin to die, which now gives the Eds the chance to close in and deal some damage.

However Father peels off of the wall and flares up once again, covering himself in flames as he gathers more fire to fight. The man prepares several fireballs in his hands and tosses a whole slew at the Eds, leaving a small margin of error for the boys to dodge. Double D closes in to use his Keyblade on Father in hopes of preventing him from using any more fire attacks, but the heat is intense so he cuts his time short. Father raises an arm to allow a fire wall to block the three Eds, and Money Maker comes swinging around to knock Father down, bringing the wall of fire down.

Finally getting a hit in, Eddy grabs his boomeranging shield and watches Ed charge up a Thundara to rain down onto Father. The shadow man creates a shield to block the incoming lightning attack, all while keeping his eyes on the Eds to see what their next move is. Ed twirls his staff in a fancy way and lets another Shadara go flying, which hits Father and causes him to lower his flames and leave the man vulnerable. Double D charges in and prepares his Keyblade for another attack, but the shadow man grabs onto the shaft of the weapon and throws Double D across the room.

Ed catches his flying friend and places him back down on his feet, leaving Eddy free to attack Father. The man of fire creates some flames and launches a fiery stream at the small Ed, pushing him away from the recovering man. Eddy is using his shield to protect him from the hot stream once again, his fingers getting hot from carrying a heating piece of metal, and the Ed really wants to throw his fiery shield without having Father absorbing the flames back into his suit and using them to repeat the cycle.

Double D and Ed come charging up with their weapons ready to strike, with Ed's hat blasting Blizzaga from his mouth to freeze Father. Father's movement is slowing down slightly, but the flames kept him warm to prevent freezing all of his movements. This slowed moment allows Double D to make contact with his Keyblade and finally deliver an attack to Father, knocking him back as Ed casts Thundara and shocks the shadow man. Eddy takes his shield and throws it at Father, getting a second hit in for the Ed as they watch Father stagger from their attacks.

The shadow raises his arms across his chest and unleashes a shockwave of power, rocketing past the Eds and scooting the boys across the floor. Fire dances wildly around Father's body as fiery wings begin to form out of his back. Father begins to float up into the air and the flames continue to dance as the shadow man powers up for future attacks. Now mad, Father creates larger fireballs in his hands and throws them down on the Eds, causing puddles of fire to remain where the fireballs hit. The boys swiftly dodge each of Father's attack, only to notice that they are losing less to move.

Normadomus spins around on Ed's head and blows a long stream of Blizzaga to chill the fires surrounding the Eds. Eddy prepares his shield and tosses it right at Father, but the man dodges to allow the shield to hit the wall behind him. The fiery shadow flaps his wings and sends down a heat wave to heat the boys up, before diving down on the Eds. Fire rain down on the boys in quick succession, making the three dodge falling fireballs as Father circles around and repeats the process again.

"Geez Louise, this guy is nuts," grunted Eddy. "Is there anything we can use against this mad man?"

"Well my Blizzaga is doing something," Normadomus replied, "but only to a certain extent. With that much fire he's producing, he's going to turn my attack into mist."

"Wait, that just gave me an idea," said the smart Ed, getting his weapon ready.

Quickly referencing his plan to the others, the Ed boys dodge an incoming stream of fire coming from Father. Ed's hat opens his mouth wide to allow the range of his attack to make sure his ice breath will hit the flaming shadow man, and the two Thunder-carrying Eds charge up their electrical attacks. Father gathers a large amount of flames and shoots the stream down at the Eds, and Normadomus unleashes his Blizzaga once again, halting the flames in mid-flight and starts a trade-of-power between the two elemental powers. The shadow man is proving to be the stronger one of the two wizards, but the hat is giving everything he has got to prevent the boys from frying.

Just as Double D predicted and Normadomus stated, there is some mist forming from the intense heat of the fire and the melting ice. However, there is very little mist to use but there is some that will help the Eds. Taking their fully charged Thunder attacks, Ed and Double D unleash their spells at the point of impact to add their lightning to the mix. With the moisture in the air, the electricity jumps around before bounding right for Father and zapping him to his fullest. The Eds cheer as they land yet another successful attack, but their celebration is cut short when a large fire wall forms just inches near the boys.

All three Eds jump back in fear as the wall dies down into smaller flames and Father is still flying in the air, only now he is appearing angrier than before. Two flaming rings appear around the man's hands and he launches more attacks at the Eds, creating fiery columns to get his revenge on the boys. With the columns appearing at random and at a fast rate, the boys are having a hard time reacting to when and where Father is going to attack, proving that this man wants to put the Ed boys out of their misery.

"This is insane!" stated Double D. "If Father keeps this situation up, we're going to be turned into roasted Ed in minutes!"

"I rather be flambéed!" cried Ed.

"Well you're the smart one Double D," growled Eddy, "so think of something!"

The medium Ed begins to think over a plan that will help them turn the favors onto them, as the Eds continue to dodge Father's fiery attacks. At that point, Father decides to skip throwing fireballs from his hands and steps his attack up from spitting fire from his mouth, expanding his body to support his attack. A heavy stream of fire bellows out from the shadow man's stomach pours down onto the panicking Eds, anxiously trying to flee from the battle, when Double D remembers that he has summoning charms on him and he takes out the one with the blue orb in the red gem.

From his hand, the summoning charm reaches up high to the ceiling as a cry from the charm rings out. The cry is for water and droplets, follow by streams, gush out from the charm and out at the fiery mouth of Father. The water snakes around the charm to form a bubble big enough to cover a small child, and the charm lowers itself to the ground. On the water sphere, the nine dotted square appears on the surface and a shadow of boy appears from within the water sphere as a glowing light shines on the boy.

Then the water bursts from an implosion, sending puddles of water to douse the flames surrounding the Eds and coat Father. The shadow man drops to the ground, wet and steaming from losing his fire, and the shadow from inside the water sphere lands gracefully with a water ring circling around the boy. He is a lot shorter than the Ed boys, appearing to be younger than them, but he appears to be a rather experienced fighter for a person of his stature. His entire being comprises as a monk's attire, wearing a red kimono, black pants, monk shoes, and the complexion of a Chinese warrior. The boy's head is shaved clean, but the Eds know that the nine dotted square was not on the charm for nothing, as the pattern is briefly glowing on his forehead before disappearing.

The summoned boy rises up from the pose he was doing and turns to face his summoner, cupping his hands in his sleeves as he bows before the Eds. "Greetings, strangely-dressed warriors," the boy spoke. "My name is Omi, a Xioalin Dragon Warrior, and I am thankful to be at your side for whatever battle you are participating in."

"Uh… you're welcome," Double D responded nervously, "but now is not a good time to be thanking us."

"Yeah, because that guy behind you is really ticked off right now," added the small Ed, "so if you really want to help us, you may want to use some of that water magic on him."

The boy that calls himself Omi turns around to notice Father gathering up some strength to ignite himself again, before turning back to the Eds. "I will have you know that my Xioalin training does not involve magic. I use the water around me and use it to my natural element."

"Yeah, yeah, just help us defeat this guy before we get crisped," Eddy grumbled.

The Xioalin monk spins around on his feet and got himself into a fighting pose, watching the shadow man getting his fire back up as Father creates a fire column to strike the Eds. Omi takes water from his body and splashes the column, dousing the flames to leave only mist and hot steam. Father's anger begins to build, along with his flames, and the four boys prepare to strike as well. Father takes one arm and unleashes a dragon-like fire attack from his arm, shooting the large amount of flames straight at the boys, and Omi counters that with a water dragon of his own.

With the two elementals busy trading attacks, this gives the Eds the ample opportunity to go in and deal some damage to Father. However, he is keeping his eyes on the three and raises a few fire traps to prevent the Eds from getting any closer. Omi prepares a water shield for the Eds, allowing the three to go around the fires and not get burn, and Father uses every trick that he knows to bring that shield down. After using flames of different strengths, the water shield drops into a puddle and the Eds close in to deliver their attacks.

Father briefly moves away from attacking Omi to use a powerful fire attack and Eddy steps in to use his shield to block the intense flames. During this encounter, the monk steps in and calls for water, getting enough of the liquid to douse Father's attack. The shadow man uses his other hand to attack Omi, but the boy protects himself in a water sphere, as the man fails to recognize the Keyblade coming at his head. The strong blow knocks Father back a few feet, causing his flames to die down as well, and Eddy and Ed start throwing attacks to increase damage.

"… _ENOUGH!_" roared Father, erupting in flames and sending a powerful heat and shockwave at the boys. "I had it up to here with you four and now I put you in your place! I'm getting that Keyblade, even if it means tearing it out of your cold, dead hands!"

"Oh man, he's officially pissed off," Eddy stated nervously. "Now what are we going to do?"

"We need to come up with an attack that will not only douse that fire but will finally put an end to this fight," said Double D very fast, "and quick!"

"How about that one Limit Break of yours?" asked Ed casually.

"Ed, that Limit Break requires Father to perform a deadly attack and there's no way that I could get close to landing a hit if he is exerting that extreme of a temperature."

"If I may make a suggestion," said Omi, also very casually, "perhaps I can create some armor out of water. That way, you should be protected from the fire user and you can get close enough to beat him with your key sword."

The smart Ed thinks over the idea in his head and sees the possibility working. There is a chance of getting his clothes wet, a chore Double D does not want to do after a battle, but he can worry about that for another time. "How long can you keep this armor up while you are performing other moves?" the Ed asked.

"Only for a brief time," the monk replied. "I can perform other moves to help you do whatever you are planning, but for how long that I am not certain of."

"It is just as long for me to get in, perform my Keyblade's Limit Break, and put an end to this fight," said Double D, raising his Keyblade and waits for a spark.

"Well can't we get this over with?" stated Eddy, blocking incoming fireballs with his shield. "I think my shield is melting from these fireballs!"

The Eds can see that Father is preparing to use a powerful fire attack that will be Double D's ticket of turning this fight around. Omi gathers enough water from out of the air and on the floor to create a suit of armor to protect Double D, and the Ed takes off towards Father to deliver his final attack. Eddy, Ed and Omi stayed behind to use their attacks to provoke Father and the shadow man got his attack stronger before unleashing it from his body and onto Double D. A spark appears on the shaft of the Keyblade, telling the Ed that this is the moment, and he swings his weapon at just the right moment of the fiery attack closing in on him.

As soon the flames engulf the Ed, the explosion happens once again and the flames ricochets right back at Father, hitting him along with a strong shockwave. The blast kicks the man all of the way into the back end of the room, smashing him into the stone wall and causing the man to burst into flames. The Eds are a bit worry for not only Double D's safety, but also if they really kill Father from that attack, but they notice the smart Ed is standing boldly from where the fire attack struck and also no signs of the shadow man on the other end. There is no certain that Father did survive that attack, but the Eds can call this a victory for them.

"All right, we beat Father!" Eddy proclaimed. "Now then we need to do is go find the Pure Hearted and get out of this place!"

"But how are we going to get out of here?" asked Ed. "I thought we're locked in here forever!"

"Ed, Father didn't lock us in here," Double D answered comfortingly. "But I don't see any doors that will lead us out of here."

"Well, it appears that my duties here are done," said Omi. "Once again I am grateful for be fighting at your sides, especially finding out about being at the side of a Keyblade master. Now then, I must return to whence I came and resume my training."

The bald boy gives a friendly bow to the Eds, and the boys return the gesture to the monk. Water begins to surround Omi as he disappears into the sphere and vanishes before the Eds' eyes. Now alone once again, the Eds notice the furniture returning to their original position, making the room look untouched by the battle, except for the burn and stained marks left by Father and Omi. There are doors appearing from the walls, meaning that there is a way to get out, but the doors bear X.A.N.A's mark on them and the Eds fail to get the doors open.

"So now what?" the greedy Ed asked.

Just after his question, the lights inside of the study switch off, leaving the boys stranded in the room without any power and light. "Great… just great," Eddy mumbled.

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Joker's Trump_ – An uber-powerful counterattack from the Keyblade that requires Joker's Wild to be the current Keyblade. Only activates whenever a very powerful, or fatal, attack is intercepted for the attack to work, which causes double the damage.

OOO

In short, it's the Reversal in the _Kingdom Heart's_ universe.

Yeah, this is just only the beginning of the Hollow Bastion chapters and I already got two big bads out of the way. Now that Father has been sent packing and X.A.N.A. out of commission for a while (we all know he'll come back to plague everything once again), that just leaves… Mask, Zip-fly and the Destroyer of Light. Now why on earth and I'm still calling the Destroyer by that and not his real name? … Probably to save his name for later or for something else. I don't know, I can't figure out a way to save it.

Now like I said plenty of times before, this story isn't your typical _Kingdom Hearts_ revision, as I have not only brought in several different elements to the story, I also decided upon making the level a true threat to the Eds. Why? Because not everything that I have to do needs to stick with the status quo, and plus it makes things a little more exciting. Having a castle that practically runs on steam appears to have running parts all over its walls, so why not? If X.A.N.A. can control any machines and any humans, then controlling a steampunk castle is not a problem for the program. Now if only Aperture Sciences can make a functional portal gun that is water resistance and prevent boiler explosions…

Of course along with the traps I have put in here, there are the Heartless who are experiencing some AI boosting. Now we have experienced some faulty AI in our gaming times (with some being equal to having a typical stupid cartoon character playing with your), but then there's the AI the programmers decide upon making things more challenging when we get deeper into a game. Since we have reach that point, the Heartless lose their typical mook status and step things up as making them tough adversaries that can think more for themselves. For the record, I'm only saying this because there will be some changes by the time we get to the end of this story.

You know, I completely forgotten that I was going to use Omi back in Stormalong Harbor, but it has slipped my mind and how here he is in this chapter. I made sure that I was going to use all of the summoning charms before the final fight, and now's a good time to use one of them. It made sense to use Omi's element back in Stormalong, but having him fight alongside the Eds against Father… that also makes sense in its own way.

Oh, and I'll guarantee you that we'll be seeing more of the Man in Shadows in the future. It may not be within this story, but I can assure you he will be making a comeback.

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Of course the next chapter is continuing on from here, but who knows what is going to happen next?


	22. Act III, Ch 22: Hollow Bastion, part 2

Part Two everyone and we're only getting deeper into the castle! Now that Father is out of the way, the only things remaining are Mask, Zip-fly and, of course the main villain, the Destroyer of Light! Aren't you still surprised by how I'm making a simple character go from one-shot to a main villain? Yeah… you got to love creative power. I hope that this sparks some interest for the people reading this.

Anyway, we should be getting up to the point where we come to the final Riku battle, in which is a pain in the buttocks to do if you're weak and don't know how to take down with a manual. Yes there is a way to take down Riku with a guide… you can't just go barging in and hope to win with just strength alone. Yeah… we all do that the first time around and it usually doesn't work. But we're not playing a video game here. We're reading a story and we got this far to know what is going on already.

Well, prepare to have your minds (slightly?) blown! And oh… I need to do this before we get going:_** this chapter contains an original character/canon character relationship. If you are offended by this pairing, please either refrain from flaming or leave the story alone**_. I thought a warning is necessary for events to come.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two – An Encounter with Fate

OOO

A few hollow clicks echo down the empty halls, reaching all the way down the massive silence passageways of the castle known as Hollow Bastion. Ed has apparently found a dial that controls the brightness of the lights hanging up above the room, and he is twisting the dial back and forth to see if the lights will turn back on. The power has yet to turn on after the Ed's battle with Father, leaving Double D to use his Fire spell to relight the candles, and there has yet to be word from Jérémie about the returning power, so the Ed boys are waiting around in the living accommodations of Father's personal study.

Eddy is sitting in the shadow man's office chair, watching the smart Ed slowly walk back and forth as the small Ed got himself comfortable. Double D is clearly thinking about the situation that they are currently in, trying to piece together some logic about what to do next, while the small Ed is rapidly tapping his foot on the desk. Along with the clicking coming from the twisting dial, the annoyance of not doing any action is getting to the greedy boy, all waiting for a response about a computer program being shut down.

"How much longer do we have to wait in this freaking room?" whined Eddy, finally breaking the silence.

"Eddy, please tone it down!" Double D hushed. "Look, I know you're very anxious about leaving this room, but we need to form a plan before we take off and also we need to hear from Jérémie about the power."

"But couldn't you just use your Light spell and use that to go off looking for the Pure Hearted?"

"I could do that, but my spell isn't some flashlight that I can control, and also there's the factor that X.A.N.A. could have sealed off passageways to make us go around in circles. We need to wait for the power to come back on before we start trekking."

"Ooh, ooh, we can go get ourselves some night-vision goggles, and we can go on a hunting spree for anything that moves," stated Ed, expressing his plans, "until we reach our final destination, defeat the final boss and escape this castle before it blows up in our faces! It's just like the video game I once played."

Once again, there is that awkward silence blanketing the atmosphere and separating the three Eds, but this time Eddy and Double D are not getting any strange effect from their friend. In fact, his idea does offer up a good solution to their ability to see, but there are some problems with his logic he pitched. "Ed, where exactly are we going to find three pairs of night-vision goggles in a place like this?" asked Eddy.

"A supply closet?" questioned the tall Ed, going for the short route.

"True but where exactly are we going to find a supply closet anyway?" asked Double D.

The three Eds begin to talk their ideas over about how they are going to go about in finding some items that will aid them to finding the Pure Hearted, when there is the sound of chirping coming from Double D's being. The smart Ed checks around his pockets to for the source of the chirping, only for him to bump his hand against the communicator and he pulls the yellow and black device out to see who is calling them. He flips the cover up and finds the screen revealing Jérémie's face staring right at the Ed boy.

"_Greetings Double D_," said the computer boy. "_So have you three been doing thus far? You finally defeated Father?_"

"Yes we have Jérémie," answered Double D. "We've completed in apprehending Father and now we are going to go rescue the Pure Hearted. Our only problem is getting out of this room and also knowing the location of where the Pure Hearted are."

"_Well, I'll have you know that the power is being restored as we speak and should be returning to your area_," said Jérémie. "_Once the lights come back on, I'll help direct you three to where the Pure Hearted are. Just a quick warning but there are some Heartless that are much tougher than the ones on the climb up, with some of those being the Neoshadows that one person mentioned earlier_."

"We'll be on the lookout in case of that," replied Double D. "Plus not to mention we are currently stuck in this room, as X.A.N.A. locked the doors on us, so we do need to get those unlock for us."

"Hey, before you go," said Eddy, "what exactly are those Neoshadows like?"

Before the small Ed can get his answer, there is the sound of metal crashing outside of the room and the lights finally turn back on, casting down the warm glow down on the Ed boys. They turn to face the path they are going to be taking and the trio approaches the door to open the metal door and leave Father's study. Before they can leave, Ed's hat looks behind the Eds and shoots out an Aerora, repelling a sneaky Darkball away and knocking it into a wall. That sole Heartless sparks a flood of shadows forming on the ground and a few beings emerge from the floor.

Rising up from these shadows are what appears to be an evolved Shadow, with each one having a long, slender body, a small head with two small, yellow eyes. The body is etched with scribbles of blue lines on every inch of their bodies, reaching from their heads all the way to the feet, and their long antennae are arching behind them to touch the ground. With sharp claws primed and ready, and viciously ravenous for the boys' beating hearts, the new Heartless charge forward to begin their assault.

With fear running through their bodies, Eddy quickly works on the door as Double D and Ed guard him from the assaulting Heartless. One of the new creatures takes its claws to strike, but Double D uses his Keyblade to beat the Heartless, and he watches the Heartless recoil from the attack. Ed blasts the approaching creatures with Fire and Thundara, but none of his attacks are destroying the Heartless on one go. The Eds begin to fear that these are the Neoshadows the others have been warning them and the slender Heartless got themselves ready to strike once again.

Eddy finally got the door open and he swings the metal door open for the three to escape the room, and lock the incoming Neoshadows inside. Once he backs away from the study, the Eds notice that there are shadows crawling under the door and a Neoshadow emerging to strike the boys down. The trio makes a break for wherever the hallway leads, getting some distance between the Neoshadow as more emerge from the study and start chasing the Eds.

The hallway is long and spacious, giving the Eds the room they need to make some escape if they encounter any Heartless. Double D prepares his communicator and sets it to where all three Eds can hear Jérémie, where the computer boy is going to give them directions to the Pure Hearted, and the Eds have their weapons at their side in case of any more Heartless encounters. At their first intersection, the Ed boys wait for some word from Jérémie about to where to go next, and a Defender drops down from the ceiling to battle the three boys.

OOO

Far down below the castle and in a large room, a very similar set-up to the room back in Traverse Town is the setting for Jérémie's work, except he does not have the Virtualization Chambers in the room. A holographic projection of Hollow Bastion is being displayed at the boy's side and he occasionally checks it over as his eyes remain glued on the computer monitors before him. With a microphone resting at his side and frantic eyes watching different windows monitoring the Eds, Jérémie is busy working on how to direct the Eds to the Pure Hearted without getting killed by the Heartless.

An elevator door opens and the other Lyoko Warriors stroll in to check in on the situation. "So Jérémie, how are the Ed boys doing?" asked Yumi, unclear about their current situation after getting out of Lyoko.

"So far so good," the blonde replied. "They have cleared Father and are now moving towards the Pure Hearted. But right now they are dealing with some Heartless and they're struggling at the moment."

"Whoa, they're going up against Neoshadows," said Odd. "They definitely are going to have a hard time against those things."

"Perhaps we should get up there and help them out," offered Ulrich.

"I wouldn't worry about that. Remember Sector V is also up there fighting the very Heartless the Eds are fighting," answered Jérémie. "If the Kids Next Door can join the Eds, then their fight will be short and less of a hassle of getting to the Pure Hearted."

"And speaking of, we need to get up there and help those people out," said Yumi.

"Well, there are some passageways that are locked by X.A.N.A. and I am doing my best at unlocking them. If you are going up there, please be careful about those Heartless."

The three children nod to the computer boy as they turn to the elevator and got inside to head up to join the others in their rescue mission. Jérémie focuses his eyes back on the monitors before noticing a large swarm of red blips heading towards the three blips representing the Eds. Up high where the Eds are, the boys slow down for a moment to feel a sudden chill running pass them, and they look around to notice shadows rushing right at them, telling them that the Neoshadows are still pursuing them.

"_Attention Ed boys, can you hear me?_" said Jérémie through the communicator.

"Yes, we can hear you loud and clear," replied Double D. "Now can you please assist us out of this mess?"

"_From what I'm getting, three large Heartless are heading your way along with some smaller Heartless. You three are trapped in that hallway unless you get rid of those Heartless!_"

"But how do you get rid of these Neoshadows?" stated Eddy. "We tried everything we can throw at these things and they aren't going down!"

"_That's because Neoshadows are built to take more hits_," the computer boy replied. "_If you work at them from a far away distance, you should have a chance of beating them_."

The hallway lights up with a red glow and the Eds look behind them to find a fireball heading right towards them. The three boys jump out of the way of the fireball as the Fire attack hits a Neoshadow and destroys it, leaving the others to glare at the Eds in anger as the Eds worry about the incoming Defenders heading towards them. Double D grabs his Keyblade and starts charging a Light spells to deal with the large Heartless as a Neoshadow sneaks up and claws at the Eds, only for Eddy to block that attack and Ed's hat blasts a Gravitaga to knock the Neoshadows all the way down the hallway.

"Really, this is the reason why I hate Defenders," said Normadomus, shifting his attention on the shield-wielders. "If you find yourself in a predicament such as this with those things blocking your path and you can't get behind them."

"Shouldn't your Aero spells be able to spin them around and expose their backs?" wondered Double D.

The hat begins to think over the idea and realizes the logic in that plan. He prepares an Aeroga and knocks the three Defenders around, creating a twister in the hallway before the Heartless settle on the ground and their backs are on the Eds. Ed takes his staff and launches both a Thundara and Shadara at the Defenders, hoping both attacks will defeat all three at once and three hearts appear once the Defenders were defeated. The Eds can hear the Neoshadows approaching from behind, so the boys take off down the hallway to get away from the unstoppable shadows.

Passing by the many pipes and lights lining the hallway, the Ed boys made it to another intersection and check around to see if another Defender is going to strike them without warning. Ed looks over to one part of a wall and finds some buttons resembling to those for an elevator, and he walks over to push the up button. The floor begins to shake and Eddy bolts for one of the exits but he notices shadows rushing out from the hallway and the room is dropping down into the floor.

"Ed, what the heck are you doing?" the greedy Ed growled.

"Trying to get us to the Pure Hearted, Eddy," the tall Ed replied cheerfully.

The floor continues to head up towards the ceiling when the boys notice the rather large space they are entering. The elevator comes to a stop and the Eds look around their new setting to find the giant space within this room to be unlike anything they have ever seen before. The room houses several thin cables visible by beams of lights and large platforms as big as the one the Eds are on slowly move across these wires to reach several destinations. There are hallways dotting this room leading to unknown territory and a towering window holding the X.A.N.A. logo outside casts the sunlight down onto the Eds.

"I really have to say, this place is a spectacle to live in," said Double D. "It is sure a good thing Father isn't here anymore."

"Hey, if someone is claiming this castle, I want to become the king of this place," Eddy butted in. "And don't worry my sock-wearing friend, perhaps I could make you the Earl of this place when I get Nazz to be my queen."

"Yeah, that'll be the day."

"Hey look, it's the Kids Next Door," said Ed, pointing out the five children on another platform.

Out towards near a wall are the five children that make up Sector V of the Kids Next Door, and they are fighting different types of flying Heartless. The children are using their make-shift weapons to deal with the Heartless and surprisingly those weapons are defeating these creatures, leaving Double D and Ed completely amazed by how simple everyday items can create lasers and fire abnormal ammo like normal firearms. The children jump onto another platform to escape rising Shadows and Neoshadows and they destroy those Heartless before turning around and finding the stationary Eds.

"Hello to all of you!" called out Numbuh One. "Are you three heading for Father?"

"No, we defeated his fiery behind!" shouted Eddy.

"We're actually heading over to where the Pure Hearted are," called Double D. "Do you five have any idea on how to get to the main labs?"

"That elevator you guys are on should help you get there," answered Numbuh Two, "but you guys need to get external help if you want to get anywhere."

"_And that's where I come in_," said Jérémie, overhearing the conversation.

The floor underneath the Eds begin to move and they look out to find that they are equal to Sector V. From under the platform, shadows leak over the edges and Neoshadows emerge from these shadows, and the Eds took immediate actions of dealing with their intruders. Numbuh Four steps to the edge of Sector V's platform and aims his rifle at the Neoshadows in order to snipe the Heartless. As Double D swing his Keyblade, Eddy throws his shield, and Ed using Fire, Thundara and Shadara, the Australian pulls the trigger and hits the Heartless to knock them down and off the platform.

More Heartless begin to appear with more Neoshadows emerging on separate platforms, Armored Knights, Defenders, Wizards and Darkballs joining the tougher Shadows, and Surveillance Robots hovering high above. With distance benefiting the children, the Eds focus on one set of Heartless while Sector V takes on another set. The flying Heartless head towards the platform and some of the children focus on those creatures as Double D and Ed cast magic on the approaching Heartless.

With the elevators getting close, the Neoshadows jump onto the children's platforms and start attacking the eight. The Eds use their close-combat weapons to knock the Neoshadows back onto their elevator and use their magic to defeat them, while the Kids Next Door use all of their combined weapons to blast the Neoshadows down. The two platforms rock violently, knocking the eight around, and the Eds notice that their platform is rising up to the ceiling as Sector V heads off towards one of the hallways in the

"Hey, where are you guys going?" shouted Eddy.

"We don't know," cried Numbuh Four. "This thing was supposed to take us to Father, but after what you just said about him…"

"We'll try to meet you guys up in the main labs," continued Numbuh Five. "Right now we are heading deep into Heartless territory and they're not happy to see us."

The Eds continue to head up into the ceiling, noticing that they are entering a dark hallway, and the three prepare themselves for a fight. Darkness begins to surround the three boys and the light from the massive room fades away as the Eds feel all around to make sure there are no Heartless are on the same elevator. A pair of yellow eyes emerges from the darkness and the Eds quickly deal their damage on the Heartless, destroying the creature before coming up into a new lit hallway.

Emerging at a three-way intersection, the Eds look around the room to see if more Heartless are going to strike them, when the communicator begins to ring. "_I'm sorry for breaking you guys from the others_," said Jérémie, "_but you three were heading in the right direction in the first place_."

"But what about Sector V?" asked Double D.

"_They're only a few floors lower from where you are. They should be checking up with you in no time, which gives you time to head to the labs and find those Pure Hearted_."

"And speaking of, which path should we take?" asked Eddy, looking down the three paths.

"_From what I'm getting on my maps, the path behind you leads up to the next level and on the way to the labs. But I am getting something from the lab itself, as it appears there is a strong enemy lurking in that room, so it will be best to get yourself healed up before entering that room_."

"It's probably that traitorous back-stabber," the small Ed gritted, clenching a fist.

"Eddy, you don't know if that is a fact or not," the smart Ed replied. "For all we know, it could be Jib waiting up in the room trying to get to Kingdom Hearts much like Father tried to do."

"Does this mean you guys are going to see Jib?" Ed butted in.

"We won't know that until we head up to the labs and see who lurks inside that room," Double D responded, taking his Keyblade and swinging the shaft onto his shoulder.

Before the Eds begin their journey to the labs, Normadomus uses a Curaga to heal everyone up and the three look on to find their path clear. The boys rush down the hallway leading to the main labs, passing by lights and pipes as they round a corner and head up some stairs before continuing on down the hallway to get to their final destination. As they spot the door in the distance, a roaming Surveillance Robot heads straight for the Eds and panics, spying the boys heading for the labs, but the Heartless fails to report its data as Eddy slashes the Robot down with his shield.

At the end of the hallway is a large spacious corridor with a door bearing the same lock as Father's study. Double D places his hand on the door and starts unlocking the door, cranking the gears and twisting the knob to get the door open. Eddy and Ed spot one final Neoshadow and Darkball crawling out from the darkness, and the two Eds got their weapons to deal with the Heartless. After quickly dealing with the pureblood Heartless, the smart Ed cracks the door's lock and starts opening the metal door open so the Eds can see what waits behind.

Beyond the metallic door, another large room with a narrow pass awaits for the Eds and the three slowly step inside of the room. They can see the dark image of the pass lining up against the walls, with rusting pipes dripping water and some oil, and a few bursts of steam halted the Eds. As they head deeper into the room, the door behind them slams shut and the Eds look ahead to find six large containers filled with some kind of liquid as the boys rush to find people inside of these containers. The trio finally found the Pure Hearted they have been hearing about, now it is time to free them from their prisons.

Double D looks out before him and wide-eyes the large room connecting from the narrow passage. This room is made to be a laboratory of some sorts, with a very large machine taking up the back wall and large pipes going up against the walls. There is some space for smaller tables to be rolled out, and a raised platform with a console and another capsule that could be holding the last Pure Hearted. And the machine mentioned has the design of a large heart, almost similar to the Heartless emblem, and there is nothing inside of this heart.

"All right Double D, this is where you come in," said Eddy, pushing the said Ed towards the console. "Let's get these people free and get out of here."

"Yeah, before we come in contact with the final boss and be blown to smithereens!" stated Ed in a worrisome tone.

The smart Ed lets out a sigh as he heads up the stairs and checks out the giant heart before focusing on the console. He notices that the container holding the seventh Pure Hearted is sitting right in the middle of the console, and he notices the controls operating the capsules. The Ed walks up and checks to see if he can crack the code needed to open the doors, when he remembers a small detail. "I just remember that when we are done, we need to find Marie and then we can leave," said Double D.

"What? I thought we got her already," said Eddy, with Ed counting his fingers.

"No we didn't Eddy," replied the medium Ed. "We haven't seen her all of this time, especially within this castle, so I figure once we are done, we can ask Jérémie and have him help us find Marie."

"But that's going to take forever considering how huge this place is!" whined the small Ed.

"Since we do have a computer expert that has track of every square inch of this place, finding Marie wouldn't exactly be that hard, now would it?" said Double D, looking over the controls. "Now then, how exactly do you open these things anyway?"

"The one next to you cannot be open by simply cracking some code."

The smart Ed retracts his fingers as his head tilts back to notice the teen Mask resting up on top of the machine. Double D notices that Mask does not have his katana on him, meaning he either has lost his weapon or did not decide to bring it, and Ed uses a Thundara spell on the teen to bring him down. Surprisingly from the boy's hand, a column of light forms and a Keyblade appears in his hand, absorbing the lightning attack and discharging it right back at the Ed, taking the full hit of his most powerful attack.

"Burnt to a crisp," he coughed.

"How did he get a Keyblade?" questioned Eddy. "There's no freaking way that he has a good heart for one of those thing!"

"Uh, have you forgotten that Keyblades can be made out of darkness and will choose a person with a rather dark heart?" Ed's hat questioned.

The masked teen leaps from his perch and stands up right to stare right at the medium Ed. Double D's eyes focus on the Keyblade in his opponent's hand, noticing how the sword's theme matches the teen's taste. The guard is in shape of a shogun helmet, with the yellow bladed horns pointing towards the tip of the Keyblade, and the shaft is dual-parted, with a supporting rod holding onto a rather fragile cutting edge. Towards the tip is the similar shape of a key's teeth and on the hilt is a keychain with the head of a samurai wearing the helmet.

_Feudal Emperor_

"What lies within that capsule is the person we have been seeking all of this time, and the one you have failed to protect," said Mask, swinging his new weapon at Double D.

"Hey, I asked you where you got that thing!" shouted Eddy. "There's no way that you could have gotten that thing!"

"For your information, anyone can wield the Keyblade as long there is a part of them is be willing to be a hero," the masked teen replied. "You also got to have some pureness in your heart if you want to wield a Keyblade, even if the weapon itself is made out of pure darkness."

"And believe me, your heart is already there…"

"Eddy, Eddy, Eddy… you're very arrogant," smirked Mask. "Are you sure if I am corrupted by the darkness or are you just using false accusations?"

The small Ed's anger begins to raise again as he takes his shield and tosses it right at the teen. Mask takes his Keyblade and blocks the attack using the blunt side. The shield returns to the Ed as Eddy starts charging towards the platform, but he fails to realize the newly created barrier protecting the platform. The small boy rams into the invisible wall head on and he slides down before picking himself up and getting a good feel of the protective barrier. "Hey Hat, is this your doing?" he asked.

"No, I didn't cast that Reflectaga," Normadomus replied.

"I was the one that cast that spell," answered Mask. "I want to make sure that I settle this little dispute between me and Double D, and make sure you two won't interfere with our fight."

"But you don't have any room on that thing!" stated the greedy Ed.

"You don't think I haven't thought that out?"

The two Eds notice the barrier backing away from the platform and heading straight towards, prompting them to get into the narrow passage or be crushed by the barrier and the cluttered walls. Ed and Eddy dive into the narrow passage to get out of the way, and the barrier comes to a stop at the archway, leaving the two Eds and Normadomus to watch the battle that is going to unfold. Double D takes his Keyblade and prepares it for the fight as Mask skillfully swings his as if he was still wielding his katana.

"Now the nightmare is real and we are here," the teen said, rubbing a finger along the blade of his weapon, "it's time to make you quake with fear and make you kneel before my might."

"Mask… or should I say Mark," began Double D, "why are you doing this? Shouldn't you be able to free the Pure Hearted and be reunited with the person locked inside of this capsule?"

There is silence coming from behind the mask of the teen as the two fighters stand there in silence. Eddy is waiting anxiously for either one of the two to make a move, obviously rooting for Double D to get the first and final move in on the teen. The two Keybladers bear their weapons and prepare to strike, waiting for one of them to make the first move, and Mask decides to be the first, taking his katana Keyblade and swinging it at the Ed. Double D counters the attack and makes a swing for himself, but his attack is counter by Mask, and Eddy lets out a cheer as the fight between the smart Ed and Mask can finally begin.

Double D got a Light spell going on Joker's Wild and he aims his weapon at the masked teen, only for Mask to disappear into thin air and reappear right behind Double D. With the spell still active, the two blades made contact and sparks fly as the magic disperses and the two fighters skid away from each other. The traitorous teen charges again and the Ed raises his Keyblade in defense, blocking each blow before the attacker stops his blows. With an open window, Double D got his chance to strike with his own attacks, but Mask proves to be at the same skill level as him, maybe stronger.

The Ed tries to use another magic spell, this time going with Fire and he launches it, but Mask jumps out of the way and shoots down a Blizzard at him. The spell is a visible snowflake, similar to a certain shadow boy's, and the Ed takes his Keyblade to deflect it, but the ice magic causes his blade to freeze up and have ice covering the shaft. Now open, Mask closes in and begins to strike, but Double D dodges each blow simply by moving his whole body. Trying to get the ice off of his Keyblade, the Ed occasionally raises his Keyblade up to deflect some blows, but the ice proves to be thicker than he imagines.

Double D takes his heavy weapons and swings it at the masked teen, giving them distance as the Ed prepares for a Fire spell. When the teen notices him doing this, he aims his Keyblade right at the Ed and fires his own Fire spell, and Double D rolls out of the way to prevent the scorching fireball from burning him. Once he selects his target, Double D got the ice melted off of his Keyblade and he can use it once again. The Ed charges up and presents his attack, with the masked teen countering every blow sent at him.

And then the two fighters make the same move and both Keyblades strike down hard as the two get into a test of power. Despite Double D being weaker than Mask, he is proving his strength in this challenge, using every ounce that he has in his body to push against his opponent. Both sides went any farther from a few inches and they kept their position for a few minutes, emitting the same amount of force to keep them in the stalemate. Just as they went for another minute, a strong force rips them away from each other and both boys skid across the small platform. The two look up at each other and gives each other a stare down before Double D begins to speak.

"Tell me Mark, why are you doing all of this?" asked the Ed. "Why are you going out on a limb to protect someone you hold dear to you when you know you can't save her at this point? Can't you unlock that capsule and leave this place?"

"I can't Double D, Father knows the activation key to that capsule and I'm not certain your Lyoko friends can be helpful in cracking the code," said Mask.

"Then should you be able to fix all of what you have done here and leave the side of evil? You know what you are doing is wrong, so why can't you rejoin us on the side of good?"

The masked teen continues to stare into space, emitting not a single sound from his mouth as he takes a few steps forward. With the Keyblade still in his hand, Double D can tell that this teen is here to kill him, since he has gotten this far in his journey, but his mind is wondering why this boy is doing all that he is doing thus far and still wanting to help whoever is trapped inside of the capsule. In front of him, the Ed quickly reacts to the teen's attack and uses a Light spell to cast him away, giving them some distance as Double D recovers from that and continues on with the fighting. Both continue to trade blows until one small move from Mask knocks Double D across the field.

The Ed rockets across the platform, heading straight over the console and down onto the lower floor, before he catches himself and stops just before smacking his back against the protective barrier. He rushes back towards the masked teen, who is charging right towards him, and Double D got Haste going in order to speed him up and get himself ready to do Rush Arcane. Once disappearing, Mask stops in his tracks and looks around to see where Double D is going to strike, only to feel five sharp blows with the final sending him up into the air and finally noticing the Ed hovering right above him. The smart Ed knocks his Keyblade down into the teen's stomach, sending him hurling back down to the platform and cause some cracks to appear.

As Double D got back onto the platform, a Thunder spell appears from the crash site, zapping the Ed and shocking him with the powerful spell. Mask rises up from his crash and brushes himself off, giving himself into his fighting stance as Double D got down on his knees and looks at his opponent weakly. He knows that this is the finishing blow, but he catches a glimpse of the teen heading right towards him, and a smile appears on the Ed's face. Taking Joker's Wild, Double D swings his Keyblade at the approaching Mask, allowing just the right time to charge up what he needed, and the two are caught in Double D's Limit Break as the .

"Unbelievable!" stated Mask. "You know your Keyblade's Limit Break?"

"Indeed I have," the Ed replied, holding his weapon up. "It has been useful in past fights, especially when it came to defeating Father, and I have to say it has yet to fail me once."

In the Ed's mind, he remembers having a fight very similar to his fight against the shadow boy in one of his Awakenings, perhaps nearly identical to that fight. Mask has his Keyblade ready to strike and prepares to attack the smart Ed, but he is stuck in place as he looks down to notice his feet is frozen in place. Double D has used his Blizzard spell to freeze Mask in place, but the teen takes his Keyblade to break free from his binds and attacks the Ed with some fury. The two return to trading blows, each one trading off magic spells as well, as the two Keybladers try to decide who should win this fight.

Eddy is rooting on for Double D to win while Ed is uncertain who he should be rooting for, as Double D continues to defend himself against Mask. With the sharp edge bashing away against the rounded shaft, it is simply amazing to the Ed how the teen's Keyblade is keeping its sharpness against the Ed's own weapon. Mask backs off and fires off a few fireballs, prompting Double D to jump out of the way, and the smart Ed uses his own Fire spell to hit the masked teen.

"Mark, please snap out of this!" Double D protested. "I know who you are and you're not really this person that you are now!"

"This is who I am Double D," said Mask. "Not a shadow of who I want to be. Try to understand, because this is what you made me and you are not ever going to change me."

"That's not true!" stated the smart Ed. "Mark, I know who you really are and you are not like this! Don't believe all that you know and listen to who you really are! Just snap out of it!"

Mask disappears from Double D's view once again and the teen emerges from behind, his Keyblade prepared to swing, and the Ed dodges the swing by ducking. The Ed performs a sweep, knocking Mask off of his feet, and Double D backs away to think of what to do next when he finds the masked teen recovering from his fall. The two continue on with their fight, with both continuing to trade blows and the other Eds watch in anticipation who is going to be the victor of this fight.

A strong blow knocks the two Keybladers back and the two find themselves on the verge of collapsing. They have been fighting for several minutes and they want to put this to an end. Mask takes his Keyblade and charges right at Double D and the Ed notices that he is going to perform another finishing blow. Getting the Limit Break ready to perform, Double D raises his Keyblade in defense as Mask raises his Keyblade and swings his weapon down at the Ed. On contact, the Limit Break unleashes its power and knocks the traitor back, sending him flying into the heart as Double D realizes his victory and finds the protective barrier fading away.

"All right Double D!" stated Eddy. "Now finish him off!"

The smart Ed walks up to his fallen adversary and places his Keyblade right under the teen's neck. He knows that killing a friend and another person is immoral, but should he deserve all of this for only one person? This teen helped the Eds long ago and he has been friends with them ever since they got to know him, now here he is beaten and crushed by one of his former friends. Double D notices the scar that is on Mask's mask and he finally understands why that mark is there in the first place.

He withdraws his Keyblade, causing Eddy to balk in protest, and the medium Ed offers his hand in peace to his opponent. Mask looks up at the Ed, noticing the kind look in his eyes, and he lets out a smirk from underneath from his mask. "Well, you're not going to finish me, are you?" he asked. "I should have known. You're not the kind of person to do such a thing."

"And I'll never allow such a person like you to suffer a defeat like that. You have proven yourself to be a worthy adversary and a friend, even in these times. I could never send you to Death all for the trouble you have went through. Sure you have done some unspeakable things that has put us close to crossing into the afterlife, but you will never do harm to your friends, because you remain to be the same helpful person from long ago.

"So what do you say," said Double D. "Aren't we friends again… Mark?"

"Whoa hold on! Are you saying we should be friends with him again?" stated Eddy. "That guy tried to kill us, not to mention was on the villains' side! Why should we allow him back after what he did to us?"

"Because I'm the one that is going to help you out of this mess," Mask replied, getting up from his crash site. "I started this and I'm going to help you out of it, no matter what it takes."

"Oh no, I'm not going to have you join us!" growled the small Ed. "You've done quite enough already and you're going to get out of our way so we can get out of this by ourselves!"

"Eddy! Just give him a second chance," the smart Ed stated, "He has a part in all of this as us and we can't just refuse his offer."

"But he helped Father in his mission! Can't you see that is enough to not trust this guy?"

Double D looks over to the teen standing before them, still hidden under his broken mask, and he can feel some mixed feelings coming from him. "I can trust him Eddy," he replied. "Yes Mark did some things that are damaging, but don't you see that he has a part in all of this and refusing his service will only prevent us from getting home."

"I can't trust someone who not only tried to kill you, but also knocked down others to get something that is only legends. What is it that you're not understanding about what I'm saying!"

"What I understand that he is doing all of this for not only us but who is trapped inside of that capsule! If you want to whine about how evil he is, that's fine by me, but if we want to leave the Pure Hearted inside of those capsules for all of eternity, then we will them here and leave Mark behind as well!"

Now Eddy is feeling some guilt inside of him. Deep down he does have some good feelings towards the fallen adversary and he does want to get out of this castle, but his mind is telling him other hurtful thoughts. With these thoughts distracting him, the Ed begins to think over whether or not to allow Mask to join them back at their side again. "All right, fine!" the greedy Ed retorted, sounding not very convincing. "But if he turns on us during this, I'm not hesitating in putting him in his place. So, what exactly are we going to do?"

"To start off, we're going to need to free all of the Pure Hearted and get them back to their worlds," said the teen, removing his mask from his face. "Once we do, all we need is to find where our world went to and use your Keyblade to restore our world."

"Are you sure that plan is going to work?" asked Double D. "I know we've experienced some strange events during our travels, but that seems a tad extreme for us."

"Besides, the boy doesn't have enough mana to produce that kind of power," said Normadomus. "Even with the Keyblade and my magic, there's no way we can restore a world from the Heartless destruction!"

"But, that doesn't mean that you can do this alone," said Mark. "All you need is the guidance of the Pure Hearted, which should give you the strength needed to get our world back!"

The Eds begin to think over what Mark just said, thinking how the hearts of seven people is going to help them in their mission when Ed's hat pitches in. "He does raise a good idea. The power of the Pure Hearted is very strong, and it was once said that all six hearts, along with the Keyblade, should be enough to create a new world. If we can release the Pure Hearted from their prisons, we can use their powers and help revive your world!"

"Wait… six hearts? Aren't there supposed to be seven hearts?" questioned Double D.

Normadomus ponders over what he just said, going deep within his mind to remember what he knows about the Pure Hearted. "No, there are six total," the hat responded. "I'm not sure how seven got into that mix, but I think Father must have gotten that…"

"He didn't screw that up," said Mark. "Blitzer was the one, since it was he that tracked down all of the Pure Hearted. Father only used him to find all of the Pure Hearted, and then use the three of them to capture all of them."

"But what about our world?" asked Eddy.

"He must have gotten his mind confused with the Keyblade."

"Well, it has been said that Keyblades do have minds of their own," said Normadomus. "It could be possible for it to protect their wielder from those seeking it, and may be relay the message of another Pure Hearted on the world to protect the one wielding the Keyblade."

"So what you are saying is that Double D is a Pure Hearted," the greedy Ed stated. "But how is that possible when we know he has darkness in his heart?"

"Ever heard of purification?"

"What?"

"It's a process to take one contaminated object and restore it back to its natural state, Eddy," Double D exclaimed. "But how does this deal with me?"

"It maybe from Prankster's magic," said Ed's hat. "He uses summoning magic, but when he did his summon for Darkside, he needed darkness to complete the summon. That price is needed if he was going to pull it off, and what you experienced when he was pulling off the summon is from the darkness being extracted from your heart. He was making you pure."

"But darkness needs to be in his heart, right?" asked Ed.

"Of course. Unless the boy was born with a clean heart and remained like that for the rest of his life, he'll be a Pure Hearted, but otherwise he is just like everyone else," the hat explained. "Everyone has darkness lying within them and there is no true method to extract all of the darkness from our hearts."

"I wish that was true," said Mark in a sorrowful tone. "If only I can remove this sickening feeling in my chest, then I can feel better for myself."

"Maybe we can fix that," said Double D, looking at the chamber before him. "All we need to do is open this and free whoever is inside."

The teen looks at the chamber and then at Double D to give him a firm nod. With Ed, Eddy, Mark and Double D in front, all four boys got their fingers in deep as they begin pulling the door open. The smart Ed can feel every inch of his body burning in pain, along with Eddy slipping as he tries to open the door. Mark and Ed are also having trouble opening the door, especially the tall Ed since he is known for his strength. The boys back away from the door so that they catch their breath and allow them to regain feeling back in their fingers.

Double D pitches an idea that involves sticking his Keyblade into the door and use Ed's hard head to pry open the door. With the idea approve by the others, the smart Ed steps up and rams his weapon into the door, getting it in enough to make sure it does not go flying when they hit it. Normadomus jumps off of Ed's head and lands on Mark's head as Eddy and Double D grab their tall friend so that they can use him as a battering ram. With their target in sight, the carrying boys take a few steps back before charging towards the Keyblade and hitting the hilt, using Ed's hard head to exert energy and plow the door right open.

The Keyblade flies out from its spot and disappears into light, heading back to its owner, and a large amount of steam exits the chamber as they can hear the sound of a body plopping to the ground. They try to wave the fog away, but all of that is proving useless until the steam starts to clear itself off. Once the boys have regained their vision, they take notice of the body lying on the ground and are shocked to find out who was inside of the capsule all of this time.

"… _MARIE?_" the Eds shouted at once.

Before the Eds is the last of the cul-de-sac children and the missing Kanker sister. The middle child of the three devilish sisters, she seems rather more of the brains but does not appear to be fully lit. Her appearance is slightly different from when they last seen her, as she has gained some new accessories over her usual black tank-top, green pants and purple shoes. The girl possesses some jewelry on her wrists and some zippers on her pants, and there is necklace bearing an unusual heart resting on the ground. And her restful head is sleeping peacefully on the hard cold ground, as her blue hair is spread apart and a bang is covering half of her face.

"Wait… A Kanker was a Pure Hearted all this time?" stated Eddy. "When did this happen?"

"Eddy, she's not a Pure Hearted!" stated Double D. "There is not a single chance that one of the Kanker sisters could have a pure hear to even be here in the first place!" He stops his rambling to look down at the sleeping girl. "So Blitzer got her confused with someone else, huh?"

"Not so," said Mark, walking up to the fallen body. "I found out about Father and his plan for some time a while back and I was hoping that I can find some way of getting at him before he can get to Kingdom Hearts."

"So what you did was set Marie up as a scapegoat to fool him in believing she's the seventh Pure Hearted?" Double D questioned.

The teen nods in response. "I was thinking that with her darkness filled heart, she can cause a malfunction in his machine and prevent him from finding out about everything he needs to know."

There is a moment of silence among the boys, until Eddy walks up and gives the teen a stink look. "You sir, are a moron," he said flatly. "How could you use someone like that and hope that it won't kill her or something?"

"I never really thought out the details other than the machine destroying and freeing Marie," replied Mark. "I never took into consideration of the risk of her dying in the machine."

"Well, at least we got her free," said Double D. "Now we just need to figure out the commands to the other chambers and set the others free as well."

_Oh, I don't think that will be necessary_, said an ominous voice.

"Who said…?" Before Double D can finish, he and Normadomus lets out a howl in pain, and both are creating dark electricity around their bodies. Ed picks his hat off of his head and tosses it to the ground, unknowingly sending it over to the large heart, and the two continue to shriek in torture. Then Normadomus stops his howling and stares at the boys with a menacing look on his face, letting out a chilling laugh as the zipper opens wider and a shadow emits from the mouth. The two Eds immediately recognize who is coming out from Normadomus and got their weapons out to strike.

Eddy tosses his shield and the shadow knocks it back with his hand, knocking the shield into the empty chamber. Ed uses a Fire spell, but the fireball dispels onto the shadow's chest and the man returns a powerful lightning attack from his hand, shocking Ed and knocking him into the console. Mark tries to take on this new figure by using his Keyblade but the shadow man takes a leg and kick the teen right back over, hitting the chamber and dropping his Keyblade. The small Ed looks up and grits his teeth in anger, now fighting solo and defenseless, and the shadow takes liberty by using a powerful gust to knock him down and join his fallen friends.

"My, my, how does the time flies," said the shadow in a sinister British accent. "Here you are, the three boys that I once knew, trying to get in my way at achieving my goal and yet you aren't putting up a fight? Aren't you three tired from making your way up here?"

Eddy got up from his position and starts to get back onto his feet, grabbing a hold of his shield as he tries to spit out the name of the shadow. "J… J… Jib…"

"Oh, I see you do remember who I am," said the man. "Very good Eddy! Now get down and join your friends as I complete this part of my journey."

"What are you doing to Double D?" the small Ed shouted, noticing that his medium friend is still hurting from the dark lightning.

"Isn't it clear to you yet? I need him because he owns the Keyblade! Much like Father, I need him and the Pure Hearted in order to complete the mission and find the path that'll lead me to Kingdom Hearts!"

Ed got off of the console and got himself standing straight as he looks at his "friend" in the face. "Bad Jib!" he stated. "What you are doing is wrong!"

"Oh, is it now Ed? Well, would you care to show me how this wrong in getting your friend to use his Keyblade and aid me in getting at my primary objective?"

Double D starts to lift off of the ground and Ed rushes over to pull him down, but the strength of his is not enough to keep his friend down. Soon, the other chambers are glowing brightly and the sound of a machine running begins to play, slowly letting out a roar before picking up speed. Eddy tries to throw his shield at Jib again, but the shadow negates his attack by not even touching it and the Ed catches it as he and the others watch the whole room run with energy.

"Yes! In just mere moments, the gate will open and I'll be on my way through the Door of Darkness!" stated Jib excitedly. "All I need to do now is have the Keyblade out and then we can get this show on the road!

The shadow turns to the boy floating a few feet away, and with a wicked smile on his face, extends an arm out to prepare another lightning attack. With a few bolts shooting right at the Ed, the smart boy is now screaming in pain, his body flailing about as his Keyblade appears right before him and is aiming straight at Jib. "Yes…! And now with the power of the Pure Hearted, I will finally make a path to the Realm of Darkness!" stated the shadow in glee.

"_**STOP!**_"

Jib continues to zap Double D as he looks down to notice Marie on her feet and her body shaking. She has her face wet with tears and her hands clutch into fists as she looks up at the shadow with an angry face. "You stop that right now, you jerk!" she snapped. "Get your dirty hands off of him before I inflict a world of pain on you!"

The shadow man recalls his hand and allows Double D to continue floating in the air as he looks down at the determined Marie. He stares at her for some time, keeping a serious and silent look before a smile emerges and starts chuckling. Then the chuckles become a laugh and the laugh turns up in volume to where the children are disturbed by his laugh as Jib stops his laugh and gives a good stare at the girl.

"Listen here missy, you're in no position in fighting me," he stated. "If you have the power of the Pure Hearted or the Keyblade, then maybe I would consider you a threat. But since you're just a measly pawn in all of this, then I have no choice but to eliminate you!"

Jib takes a hand and charges up a fireball, getting it big enough to grasp it like a baseball and toss it down to the girl. Marie stares at the approaching fireball and braces herself for the blow, knowing that she has nothing to defend herself with. Instead, Eddy and Mark jump in and use their weapons to block the attack and save Marie from getting severely burn. The shadow throws a disgusted look at the boys as they lower their weapons and shoot Jib a mean look.

"So you value a life that means nothing in this plan of mine, and you're willing to protect her even though your friend is being torture so that I can get the Keyblade out of him?" questioned Jib.

"She does mean something!" stated Mark angrily. "She has a big part in this story and you don't give squat about it!"

Jib lets out a smirk. "Honestly boy, that's something to be coming out of your mouth," he said. "You obviously used her out of love, and you didn't take into considerations of the consequences of your actions. I don't think that using a girl you love in a plan that involves stopping me isn't going to cut it."

"Mark…?" said Marie, looking at the teen, who is now holding back a mixed bag of emotions. She turns her attention back up to the shadow and steps forward to speak to him again. "I don't know who you are, but since you know the Eds very well, then why are you doing this now?"

"Well, it's all about timing my dear," replied the shadow. "Once the moment that I knew Double D possessed the Keyblade, it's only a matter of time when that power is going to be unleashed and when that power is at its peak. Once then, I just swoop in with the Pure Hearted and then take that power so that I can finally access what I've been searching for my entire life!"

"Kingdom Hearts," finished Ed.

"Exactly, Ed. With the power of infinite hearts in my grasp, there's no stopping me and my creator, and we'll become the strongest beings in the universe!"

"Not if we have anything to say about that!" stated Eddy.

Jib lets out another laugh in protest. "Please! You're just stalling for time! The process is almost complete and here you are just whining at me!"

"We got to stop all of this!" stated Marie.

"It's too late!" Jib called out, getting out of the way as a large beam of light exits the Keyblade and hits the heart. Everyone watches in horror, with the exception of Jib, as the blinding light pierces the heart door and consumes the whole room. The shadow lets out an evil laugh as there are muffled screams coming out of the other six chambers, adding on to the roaring of the machine and the screams of the smart Ed.

Soon, the light dims down and Double D collapses to the ground. Marie rushes over and catches him in her arms as she and the others watch Jib rise up and laugh at his progress. "Finally… after searching for countless years," said the shadow. "I have unlocked the portal to the Realm of Darkness! All I need to do is acquire the Keyblade and then I'm done with this pathetic universe."

The shadow looks down at the Keyblade on the ground and reaches for it, grabbing onto the hilt and watching it turn from Joker's Wild into Kingdom Key. With a smile on his face, he takes his new weapon and pierces through the door, inching his way through as the Keyblade disappears from his hand and heads back to his rightful owner. Jib takes a look at his now free hand and turns towards the children, thinking about stealing Mark's Keyblade, but he decides not to go with that plan.

"If you boys are willing enough to put an end to all of this, then follow me and try to stop me," Jib said confidently. "Of course, you're going have to get pass by several Heartless before reaching me…"

There is a loud roar coming from beyond the heart door, terrifying the others and leaving Jib smiling. "That is my cue," he said, saluting and zipping into the door to leave the children to fight the approaching Heartless. Normadomus snaps out of his little spell, realizing what has been going on and he looks up to see the feet of Jib entering the heart. "Hey, get back here and turn me back into a human!" the hat stated.

"It's too late for that," said Mark. "He's already making his way towards Kingdom Hearts…"

"Well, I guess I can rule out being possessed as an option of turning me back," the wizard hat mumbled. "That just leaves him getting me back to normal, but he's already passing through the Door of Darkness to get to his goal."

"Mark…"

The said teen turns around to find Marie staring at him, only then to feel a powerful slap across his face and feeling the sting of that slap. "How dare you! How could you have used me like that and tell a lie all for potentially sacrificing me to some crazed lunatic?" she stated angrily, tears building up. "I thought that you had some respect for me but here you are using me as some thing in your scheme to get at someone you don't even know!"

"Marie, it's not what you…"

"I don't care what you say! You hurt your friends, got caught up in some crazy plan, got me get kidnap, trap me in that chamber and put me into a deep sleep!" the blue haired girl shouted, each word stabbing at all four boys. "And now you have to go let some madman go get his hands on who-knows-what all because of your stupid plan! Why should I even listen to what you have to say?"

"Because Marie…"

"Because nothing! Don't you see, you hurt me Mark and you done something so incredibly stupid that you could have me killed! What would you do if that were to happen?"

The hurt teen turns his head away in fear and sorrow, as tears begin to drip down his face. "I… I don't know," he replied, his voice broken.

"I thought so. If you really care about me, then you wouldn't have gone down this path!" Marie snapped. "You, Mark, are a complete asshole and I want you out of my life!"

That last line struck the teen hard and he falls down on his knees, his face blank as the tears continue to streak down his face. Marie also has her face soak as well, with her tears stinging her as well, as she turns away and walks from the boys. The Eds look at the broken boy before them, seeing him staring into space and wet from his tears, and Ed nudges Double D in hopes of cheering the sad Kanker back up. Just as Double D begins to head over to the girl, Eddy grabs onto his shoulder and drags him back to talk to him privately.

"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed. "Can't you see that this has nothing to do with you?"

"Eddy, I must settle this little dispute," the smart Ed protested. "I know you don't like the Kankers as much as I do, but I much rather have people in a good mood instead of this depressing state."

"But that's something I can't understand," said Eddy. "She's a Kanker! She shouldn't even be crying over some man that broke her heart. She should rather be happy bringing a man to his knees instead of doing of what she is doing now."

"… Shut up!" barked Marie. "Just because I am who I am doesn't mean that I let my emotions out!"

"Well, at least that will prevent people from commenting on that," mumbled Double D.

"But they still will complain about all of this… what are we going to be doing about this anyway?"

"Eddy, stop acting so childish and allow me to go talk to Marie."

Double D gently pushes the greedy Ed to the side as the smart Ed walks up to the crying Kanker sister in hopes of cheering her up. The Ed got down right next to the girl and waits for an opportunity to speak, even trying to figure out what to say to the Kanker. He knows that the sisters have been harsh on the Eds before, but now here is one suffering from a broken heart, and the smart Ed is lost on words. How is he going to make any progress with his former enemy if he cannot come up with anything?

"You can try all you want, but it's not going to do anything," said the blue-haired girl, shocking Double D. "I don't need you to say anything to cheer me up."

"But do you want to live a life of misery after finding out what Mark has done all this time?" asked the smart Ed, finally finding the words. "That doesn't seem like a good choice to take, especially when you're like this now."

"I know, but perhaps I should move on from him," said Marie. "We had some rough experiences in the past and I was feeling kinda wishy-washy on him. It isn't like you when I know I have strong feelings for, but there's a part of me that really wants to be with that heart breaker."

"Perhaps something deep within you is telling you to try something new. Now I know we had our differences in the past and we still do now, but maybe it's time to move on to different people. Maybe this little excursion with Mark is just the thing you're looking for."

"But I didn't want some man to used me for some idiotic stunt and leave me as a broken mess!" Marie bawled. "All I want is someone to love me back and… ugh, my mind is hurting!"

"Marie, are you feeling all right?" the medium Ed asked worrisome. "Do you need some potion to help cure your headache?"

"No… it just my head hurts from this splitting decision I have to make!"

Both Double D and Eddy are confused by that last statement of Marie's, leaving them puzzling about why is she talking about some random decision at this moment. "For months, possibly a year, I have been at the mercy of wondering who I should choose to be at my side," the girl explained. "There have been two great men that have entered my life, but now I'm at the point of choosing who I should rather be with."

"So hold on," began Eddy. "This is all because you either want to be with Double D or Mark? Come on! You should go with Double D, since he is the hero after all!"

"Who asked for your opinion, shrimp?" Marie growled.

"Now, now Marie, let's try to control that anger of yours," Double D said calmly. "I know you're a bit emotional right now, so it's possibly best not to take your anger out on Eddy or anyone else at that. There are some people inside of those capsules and we really don't want to kill them by accident."

"Yes, but I just can't shake this feeling inside of me," the girl proclaimed, grabbing onto her tank-top and head. "If only I can come up with the decision, then I wouldn't be feeling this pressure inside of me!"

"Well, there isn't much that I can do to help you with that," the smart Ed explained. "The only way you can get out of this is for you to come to that decision. Once you decide, there will be no turning back on your decision."

"MARIE!"

The two stop their talking and turn around to find Mark on all fours now, now streaming tears from his eyes and body shaking, as he struggles to get his emotions out. "Marie… I beg of you… just please forgive this forsaken soul," he began. "I know what I have done was unforgivable and I would surely pay the price for it, but all I seek is your forgiveness and I can be happy once again!"

"Is that all you want?" the girl asked. "Do you know what you have done these past few months? You kept me locked up inside of that container, trapped in a permanent sleep and put the Eds into a lot of trouble."

"Marie…"

"No… you didn't just put the Eds through a lot of trouble. You put a whole lot of others in trouble, possible whole worlds. If you haven't done what you have done, in what getting me kidnapped by some wolf creature, joining a shadow man in his goal of achieving a fantasy, and nearly killing Double D, we should be living our lives instead of being inside of this asylum!"

"But Marie…"

"Mark… I'm sorry, but I can't do that," Marie replied, now speaking calmly. "You hurt me deeply and there's nothing that you can…"

"_**I LOVE YOU!**_"

There is silence among the children, each one of them shocked by the sudden outburst from the broken teen. Marie is most surprised by this, along with Double D, and Mark lifts himself up to face the one he loves. "I know what I have done, but that doesn't excuse me for loving you ever so deeply," he said. "They say that love makes you crazy and this is the payoff of that madness. A ridiculous plan that involves the two of us trumping a madman in hopes of being in the same room together… it could have worked. If only I knew the consequences of my actions beforehand, none of these events wouldn't even happened. "

Tears continue to flow down the blue-haired girl's face as Mark finally gains his strength and pulls himself back up. "Marie, I just want you to know that I will do whatever you want, no matter what it is, all to hopefully pay you back for this event," the teen said, continuing on as he grasps the girl's hands. "If it isn't much, I'll start here and get to work on paying you back. Just name your price and I will do anything to pay for it."

"Mark… are you serious? You really think that is going to work?" asked the girl, her face blushing red. "I… can't think of what you can do that will pay me back! I just want you to…"

"I understand. If you want to be alone, then so be it. If you want to be with Double D, then go ahead. I will allow you to do whatever you wish and I'll be out of your way."

"No!" the girl stated, and she catches herself after that. "… I mean, I don't want you to get out of my way. There's something that I want to say for some time now…"

"Go ahead Marie," said Double D, encouraging her.

"Well, it's just that I'm a bit torn between choosing between the two of you," the blue-haired girl started. "I got to know you for quite some times and I know that the two of you are special in your own ways."

"Hey, what about us?" asked Eddy.

"Double D, you're a nice guy, with you being there and supplying your support, even though you feared me and my sisters. Mark, I think that you are a sweet guy and have a unique talent, but I'm not certain about how to deal with this situation. I got to know you personally for a few months and I really like you two, but this feeling in me is driving to only one of you."

"Guh, I hate this romantic crap," the small Ed mumbled, and Ed nods in response before getting hushed by Normadomus.

"Really, it's a hard choice, but I know who I want to be with. Double D, again you are a really nice boy, but now that I got to know you, I'm not really cut to be in a relationship with you."

The smart Ed is slightly surprised and both Eddy and Mark are completely flabbergasted by this statement. Ed is slightly unfazed by that statement due to his nature, but he is surprised that the blue-haired girl is not choosing his friend. The teen's eye is twitching with the rest of his body frozen, shocked from the surprise, and Double D regains feeling as he approaches the girl.

"Marie… I will respect your decision," he said calmly. "Even if there is a part of me that likes you, it will never grow into love."

"That's fine Double D. There is still a part of me that will always love you, but for now, I rather see how well I deal with another man before I make my final decision."

The blue-haired girl flashes a friendly smile at the medium Ed as the small Ed continues to stare at the two with a frozen reaction. Marie makes her way over to the still frozen Mark to help him unfreeze from his position, and try to bring the teen back down to earth. "So… even though I won't be forgetting all that has happened here," she started, "I'll be willing enough to put up with more of your crap for the time."

"What? Are you calling my ideas crap?" the brunette questioned. "I'll have you know that I was going to get you free from your prison when Father was defeated, but my sudden Awakening caused me to lose track of my thoughts."

"Oh really? Then can you remember your promise of paying me back for all you have done, no matter what it is?" Marie teased, sounding much like her former self.

Mark looks deep into Marie's single green eye, noticing the cunning plan formulating in the back of her head, and the boy lets out a smirk as he grins widely. "Well, as long as it isn't going to get me in jail and not anything like this again," he replied.

"Oh, I got the first thing that I want you to do for me…" Marie launches herself up to Mark's face and, to his and the other's surprise locks her lips onto the teen's lips. Mark did not expect for his first kiss to be coming from the girl he likes, he loves, in the predicament as this, especially with the Ed boys watching them, but his mind begins to slip away as he loses focus on the world and onto the girl before him. Eddy is feeling unease by the scene as Double D watches in content and Ed a bit confused on why they are doing this now.

"Ugh, is it right to have something like this in here?" asked the small Ed. "My eyes are going to catch on fire if I have to keep on watching this."

"Well you once said that this is fan-fiction Eddy," replied Double D. "Anything goes, remember?"

"Yeah, but I think this is a bit much."

"So? I think they do make a good couple. You just need a few more years and a few good dates, and you have the workings of a new married couple."

"Sheesh, and I'll hate to be related to those two anytime soon," the small Ed mumbled.

"Do not say such a thing," stated Ed. "If you do, your wish may come true!"

"Ed, that wasn't a wish. That's just a bad thought if I ever had the chance of being related to either of them…"

There is another roar coming from beyond the heart door, and the five children realized that they have yet to close the portal. A strong vibration rocks the children off of their feet as the roaring got louder and closer to the portal. Then sounds of yelling is coming out from the narrow passageway and the five children making up Sector V burst in carrying their weapons and looking eager for a fight. They notice the others up on the raised platform and the heart door open, along with hearing another loud roar echoing out from beyond the portal.

"It looks like we have made it on time," said Numbuh Five. "It sounds like we got ourselves a giant Heartless emerging from that portal there."

"Hey, where the heck were you five been?" snapped Eddy. "We could've used your firepower when we were fighting Jib!"

"For your information, we got ourselves lost in these hallways," explained Numbuh Two. "It's not easy finding your way to the main labs when you're fighting Heartless in narrow hallways, and also Numbuh Four being the keeper of the map."

"Hey, at least I got us here in one piece!" the Australian boy barked, insulted from that last statement.

"This isn't the moment to be arguing here," said the leader of Sector V. "We need to help the others out by freeing the Pure Hearted before whatever is coming out of that heart!"

A booming, deafening roar rips through the heart and everyone shifts their attention to the portal. The stomping increase dramatically as there appears to be ripples forming through the portal. The first thing to come out of the portal is a black horn, obviously attached to a head of something large, and two hooves reaches out to grasp onto the heart-shaped archway. The creature begins to pull itself out from beyond and reveal itself to the others, showings its large purple body, massive tusks, yellow eyes, and the familiar Heartless emblem etched onto its chest.

"B… Be… Beh… _BEHEMOTH!_" shrieked Normadomus.

"… That thing is a Behemoth?" questioned Ed, scratching his head.

"Aw, that thing looks so cute!" stated Numbuh Three.

"Cute? Numbuh Three, do you have any idea what a Behemoth is?" said Numbuh One. "These things are powerful Heartless stronger than everything else we encountered! In fact, those things are extremely rare and only one is spotted in a blue moon! They're hard to stop because they are that powerful!"

"So… they're bad?" the girl asked.

"Exactly," deadpanned Numbuh Two. "My question is how did that Behemoth appear here when there's no way it could appear inside this castle?"

"Can we stop it with the questions and get out of here before we get ourselves killed?" cried Ed's hat, anxious of getting out of the lab.

"Hold on, shouldn't we get the Pure Hearted out of harm's way instead of leaving them here and get killed by this Behemoth?" questioned Double D.

"Uh, how exactly are we going to worry about those people when we got a giant Heartless emerging from a portal from who knows where?" asked Eddy. "I'm in agreement with Ed's hat on bailing this place and have the Kids Next Door take this one."

"Whoa, even though I like to get out alive, I agree on your friend on freeing the Pure Hearted," the wizard hat retorted. "If they do hold the power to bring your world back, leaving them here to be crushed by the Behemoth wouldn't exactly be the best option to do now would it?"

"So what are we going to do? None of us know how to open those stupid capsules and we never fought against one of these things!" complained the small Ed. "Unless we have a technology expert and something that will help us defeat this thing, we can get out of this dump!"

"Uh, you do realize that we have the Kids Next Door here to help us with that," Mark pointed out.

"And not to mention Jérémie can remotely access this lab and decode the containers' locks," said Double D. "OK, that should be it for now."

"Now for the plan… First we need some of the Kids Next Door to take the Pure Hearted out of their containers and outside, while the rest can stay here and fight the Behemoth," said Mark. "Me and Double D shall stay here while Ed and Eddy can go figure out the commands, while Marie shall join the Kids Next Door and lead the Pure Hearted out."

"Oh no, I'm not wussing out here," the blue-haired girl stated. "If I have any say in this, I rather be the one getting those people out and you go join those brats."

"Uh, I do have a Keyblade that is capable of taking this thing down," the teen replied, "so I rather stay here and help Double D defeat this Behemoth before it destroys this place."

"But didn't you say that you'll do anything to pay me back for everything that you did here?"

"Can we stop wasting time and get this over with?" Eddy yelled.

"All right, here's what we're going to do," said Numbuh One. "Numbuhs Two, Three and Five, when the Pure Hearted are free from these chambers, you'll escort them out to the front entrance. Numbuh Four and I are going to stay behind and help the others defeat this Behemoth."

"Roger that," the other operatives replied, saluting their leader as they wait for the capsules to open.

The two other number operatives rush over to join in on the fight as Ed, Eddy and Marie head over to the controls to figure out what to do. Double D passes the communicator over the Eds and they are given instructions on how to figure out the controls, as the smart Ed and Mark draw their Keyblades to get themselves ready for the fight. The two Keybladers begin their assault by attacking the hooves of the Behemoth and the two operatives using their firearms to shoot at the head, but Double D notices that, much like the Heartless in Stormalong Harbor, the health is not going down at all.

Over at the controls, the computer boy is giving orders to the Eds and Kanker that will help them get the Pure Hearted free. Eddy strings in a series of commands, follow by Marie entering some commands of her own, but when they enter the commands at once, the doors fail to open. The two are getting angry that the smart Jérémie is failing them, until an idea pops into Eddy's head and he evilly looks at Ed. The small Ed reaches behind the tall Ed's head and pushes down, bringing the boy's thick head down onto the console and smashing down hard to break through the metal plating and destroying the electronics inside of the console.

Marie is about to yell at Eddy for destroying their only option of freeing the others, but when she hears doors sliding open, she holds her shouts back. Numbuhs Two, Three and Five gather up all of the Pure Hearted and help the fallen six out of the room as the rest of the children struggle to deal with the Behemoth. The damaged console is sparking electricity and the fighters notice that the door is flickering slightly, meaning the door is connected to the console. The Behemoth continues to pull itself out from wherever it came from, but slowly now thanks to the squeezing portal.

"Eddy, whatever you did, it's having an effect on the Behemoth," said Double D. "You got to destroy the console if we want to have the upper advantage in this fight!"

"And here's a handy tip: _AIM FOR THE HORN!_" shouted Normadomus, strongly emphasizing his tip as he blasts a Gravitaga from his mouth.

A dark purple sphere circles around the black horn of the Behemoth, and strangely the Heartless begins to feel sick. This gives Double D and Mark the chance to strike the Behemoth at its weakest point, while Numbuhs One and Four are busy shooting away at the Heartless, all while missing the two Keybladers. Eddy once again takes Ed by his head and smashes him into another part of the console, destroying that as they watch the portal flicker some more and crushing the Behemoth. The smart Ed checks the Heartless' health and notices that it is dropping, meaning they are doing some major damage to the giant.

The Behemoth picks itself up and lets out another roar, taking one of its hooves and smashing it down on the Keybladers. Double D and Mark counter the attack by using their Keyblades against the hoof, but their attack did little to harm the giant. Normadomus unleashes another Gravitaga to bring the Behemoth down, and the children continue to bash away at the Heartless as Eddy continues to use Ed's head on the console. Shadows begin to leak out from the portal and start forming into Neoshadows, and the children are now trying to push their efforts of closing the portal and defeating the Behemoth.

Double D and Mark switches from attacking the Behemoth to the Neoshadows by using their magic, knocking some damage into the stronger Shadows, while inflicting some damage to the giant. With the help of Sector V shooting from afar, their efforts of defeating the Neoshadow is a breeze which only leaves the Behemoth to worry about. With the Gravity spell fading, the giant Heartless picks its head up and tries to take down the Keyblade wielders. Eddy takes Ed's head one more time and slams it down into the console, breaking the device to a total wreck, and the portal flickers strongly before closing and slicing the Behemoth halfway.

The Heartless lets out one more roar as it disappears and a giant heart takes it place. All of the children let out a sigh of relief, knowing that they defeated the Behemoth, and all seven of them begin to head out. Just as the five on the platform join the Kids Next Door, the lab begins to vibrate, shaking the whole room as the seven look behind them in horror. During the destruction of the console and the closing of the portal, the Behemoth was still in the process of moving between realms and now it is causing a bad reaction to the portal.

"Uh Ed, did you say that when we defeated the final boss, there will be an explosion of some sorts?" asked Double D nervously, with Ed nodding in response.

"Man, I hate it when is right, especially if it turns out to be something like this," explained Eddy.

"We need to get out of here, stat!" ordered Numbuh One, stating the obvious. "Who knows what that Behemoth did and what that heart is going to do?"

The others nod in response and they quickly rush out through the door one by one, making their way down the hallway and coming up to the intersection where the Eds used the elevator. Ed spots elevator controls on the wall and he pushes the down button, getting the elevator going down into the floor and back into the large elevator room. As the children wait for the inevitable explosion, they also prepare for any more Heartless to fight, but they are surprise to find none to come out of the darkness.

The elevator lowers down into the massive room, where they can find several platforms moving at a faster pace than before. The two operatives notice their other members of their sector, along with the Pure Hearted, on a platform heading towards the large window, and they give a wave to their fellow operatives. Double D begins to feel the presence of a keyhole nearby and he looks towards the window to find some light gathering up in a dark spot of the giant symbol, and he got his Keyblade ready to send a beam of light towards the window.

Once sealing the lock of Hollow Bastion, the children continue to wait for the elevator to take them down to the bottom level, and they notice that they are heading down a different path than what the Eds remember. The seven look over the edge and find that they are heading down towards the first floor where the Ed boys and Mark took part in their fight, and the Eds are relieved that they do not have to take a longer path to get to the entrance. After several minutes of waiting, the platform touches the ground and the children walk off the elevator, heading straight for the foyer where they found the other Sector V operatives, the Pure Hearted, and the Lyoko Warriors.

"Man, that is a quick ride," said Numbuh Two.

"And I'm glad it was," Eddy sighed.

"And here we are trying to get up to where you were and try to help you get the Pure Hearted," said Ulrich. "I'm glad we didn't get that far up in the climb."

"Well we did it," said Double D. "Not only have we defeated Father, but we freed the Pure Hearted, sealed this world's keyhole and defeated the Behemoth!"

"But sadly we let the Destroyer of Light through the Door of Darkness and got him on a path to Kingdom Hearts," said Mark depressingly. "Plus, we destroyed the only way to the Realm of Darkness that can help us catch the Destroyer from getting the said kingdom."

"Well if it isn't much, we could help you with getting a path to the Realm of Darkness," said Aelita.

"You can do that?" asked Marie.

"Well isn't there another why some Nobody, Heartless, Unversed and a crazed masked boy captured all of us?" a Pure Hearted boy asked.

Mark throws a sheepish smile at the Pure Hearted, ashamed that he was part of Father's plans of capturing these innocent people but grateful that they do not know his face. Of the six people that are called the Pure Hearted, two are familiar to the Eds with the rest as total strangers. Three of them are human with one being a cow standing on her two hind legs, and the rest are males. Two of the male Pure Hearted are boys almost equal in age, with one being a blonde and wearing a sailor's attire while the other is a brunette with a red shirt, green pants and a backpack, and the last is an adult male.

Out of the six Pure Hearted, the man strikes the Eds in an unusual way. The man stands tall against the others and shows courage and honor in his figure. He is a samurai by his appearance, with him wearing a white kimono and hakarma, wooden sandals, a sheathed katana at his side, and also there is a sun hat hanging right behind him. The man is of a foreign nationality, having the same complexion as Numbuh Three, but the Eds can feel that this is no ordinary man and this has nothing to do with his Pure Hearted status.

The man looks down at the Eds and he can feel something similar to what the Eds are feeling, as if they are linked together somehow. The Pure Hearted faces the Eds and gives them a friendly bow, and the Eds return the bow as the man straightens himself. "… Thank you friends," is his message as he rejoins the other Pure Hearted.

"Why do I get the feeling we're going to meet that man again?" asked Double D.

"It could be gas," Ed commented.

"It doesn't matter," said Eddy. "We got the mission done, so can we please head back?"

The Eds give a nod and turn to the group that is before them. They can see that they have made some new friends on their journey, even if they have met for only a few minutes, but they can feel the warmth that is emitting from this group. They are relieved that their journey is coming to an end and the only thing left standing between them from going back home is the man that they once knew as Jib and the mythical kingdom of unknown properties. Now that the Eds have the Pure Hearted backing them into getting their world back, the trio makes their way out into the world and towards their Gummi ship.

"Double D…"

The said Ed stops in his tracks and he looks to see a teary-eyed Marie staring right at him. She begins to choke on her words, but she manages to recover and look at the Ed with a soak face. "Thank you," is all she said.

The Ed stares back at the Kanker sister with a quiet look on his face, before warming up to her and smiling back at her. He gives Marie a friendly smile as she and Mark head out into the open and head for his ship. Right behind them are the Lyoko Warriors and the six Pure Hearted, all of them tired and relieved that this experience is finally over, and the five warriors lead the Pure Hearted out to their Gummi ship. The only people left are the Eds, who decided to get one last look at the majestic castle of Hollow Bastion before making their way outside.

"Let's get out of here Eddy," said the smart Ed. "We are done here in Hollow Bastion."

"It's about time," the greedy Ed replied. "I felt sick to my stomach after watching that bull crap, but at least we got a whole lot done here."

"Aw, and I wanted to own this castle!" whined the tall Ed.

"Perhaps another day my friend," commented Eddy, also feeling sorrowful.

* * *

… Just to let you know: I don't care if you criticize or not. I am who I am and there's nothing you can change about my opinions. I can see this happening over everything else, as… come on, some of your pairings seem ridiculous! (Rolf x Marie, for example)

OK, there is a good reason as for why am I doing this. I'm sure you know that Double D does have the qualities of being a ladies' man, but he doesn't show any interest in giving love back at his age (as of now). So when he grows up, he'll find someone that will match him and the other girls will. Trust me on this; I'm sure Nazz will find a perfect match, and so will Sarah and the Kankers... OK, Marie and May. Until someone can make Lee look decent in a picture, there is _no_ chance that any of us (with some exceptions) wants to go on a date with her.

And what I mean by exceptions... there are those Lee fan boys/girls out there.

So please, respect my pairing. I know you have the same idea of pairing yourself with one of the EEnE cast members, so don't go flaming me just for that! And please, I'm not a big time shipper like the rest of you. If there's something that I like, I'll support it. If it's too much for me, then I won't support it. ... OK, if it's involving characters I like, then I'll support it, but as long as they match each other perfectly. And I like to note that even though Marie has this personality that we know of her from the show, it doesn't mean that she doesn't have other feelings, which I know other writers has expressed through their own stories as well. And also I want to try something different as well!

OK, enough of me ranting there, I need to get back into focus. So this is when you were pass the Maleficent boss stage and you go up to rescue the Princesses of Heart, only to face off against Riku one more time and then encounter Ansem... uh, should I say Xehanort's Heartless? ... Meh, I guess I did. Anyway, it's a Heartless, let's leave it at that. It's pretty much what just happened here. And the added fact that I pretty much copied the battle from when Double D faced off against Shadow Sora during his Awakening, since I did planned on having that battle and the battle with Mark to be identical. Man, I'm surprised how I remember that…

Plus we all remember seeing the Behemoth somewhere within this game at one point or another. At first when I saw it… I thought it was adorable for how it looked. But after learning some secrets about the Heartless, I figure to do something a little different for the creature, such as bringing it out and, of course, mentioning the famed "Aim for the horn" bit. From the guide and wiki, the idea is to use Gravity on the horn to bring it down and then strike the head to do damage, so… hey, I was following the guide!

So, if you know your Pure Hearted, here they are: Cow (for an odd reason), Bubbles, Aelita, Mac, Flapjack and our nameless samurai (a.k.a. Jack. Do note that Jack never had a name in the show, but rather a nickname since that is what all of the future people [except Aku] called him).

So once again, I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is... hmmm... how can I say this... OK, let's just say it's one of those hidden boss fights. And yep, it's who you think it is. And please don't flame me!

**P.S**: To note about the Behemoth being cute… again, I'm weird.


	23. Act III, Ch 23: vs Zipfly

And so, we have reach the end of this act and this ring, and we have reach our third major ending boss battle, this time taking a very deadly enemy and the last of my trio for the Eds to fight. That's right, they are going to face off against the one and only: Zip-fly.

Don't let the name fool you. Like I said back in Chapter Seventeen, the Nobody's part Dusk, part Samurai and part Assassin. Plus being a master swordsman with two hands that can morph into katanas and having blinding speeds... it makes you wondering that I made this guy just like Sephiroth?

OK, just before you begin reading the boss battle... go find Sephiroth's _Advent Children_ theme. Play that while you are reading this, and allow me to say this: if this was to be real and this is playing in the background... the Eds are screwed.

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Three – One Annoying Zip-fly

OOO

Now finally back outside of the castle of Hollow Bastion, the Eds are walking out towards the moving rocks to head back to their Gummi ship. They are walking the bridge out to the archway, each of the Eds relieved that they are not fighting any more Heartless on their way, and the boys decide to turn back to look at the majestic castle one more time. From what they are seeing, the X.A.N.A. symbol has mysteriously disappeared and from underneath the brass Heartless emblem hangs proudly out in front.

"You know, I think I like seeing the Heartless emblem there instead," said Double D.

"I wonder why that's there in the first place," pondered the small Ed.

"That's for another story Eddy," replied Ed.

"Man, and it wouldn't hurt for one of us to go back and take the place over," said Eddy. "Think about it: Father isn't here anymore plus we got rid of everyone that works for him, freed the Pure Hearted and defeat that Behemoth! We can rule this place and bring it back to life, which means that I will have followers and they will worship me as I rule over all of those saps with an iron fist!"

"Eddy, you're getting power hungry again," the smart Ed muttered.

"And isn't the castle going to blow up because we defeated the Behemoth?" Ed pointed out. "We can't go back there! I don't want to blow up with Sarah watching me!"

"And speaking of, what are we going to do with the twerps and cuckoo-brains once we dropped them off in Traverse Town?" asked the greedy Ed. "It's not like we're going to do much with them now that we don't have a way home."

"First and foremost, we need to do some research about this power the Pure Hearted have and see if it's true if they can bring back fallen worlds," said Ed's hat. "Once then, we shall follow the instructions to the process and combine their powers, along with the Keyblade's, to create enough mana to hopefully bring back your world."

"That definitely sounds like a good start," said Double D. "But what are we going to do with Jib? It appears that he is our top priority since he is on his way to get to Kingdom Hearts."

"True, but the man is going up against some tough obstacles in the Realm of Darkness," said Normadomus. "Whether or not he is an Unversed, some of the Heartless lying in that realm can exceed even a Keyblade Master's power."

"So… if we were to go into this realm, we're screwed beyond belief, aren't we?" asked Eddy, sounding not so happy about the inevitable response.

"Pretty much."

The small Ed lets out a groan as the Eds continue on to their ship. Eddy begins to feel something suspicious in the air and checks around him to see whatever is following them, but his eyes see nothing. Shrugging it off, the boy trails right behind his friends as Double D begins to feel the same feeling as Eddy and spots a white blur heading right towards the Ed. "Eddy, look out!" he shouted.

Before he can react, there is a sharp kick to the greedy Ed's face and Eddy is sent flying. The other two Eds notice who sent the small Ed flying, turning around to find the Nobody Zip-fly standing right behind them with one of his hands as a katana. The Nobody flashes a smile as he swiftly strikes the other two boys down, preventing them from drawing their weapons, and he sent the Eds flying across the ground in the same direction as Eddy. With all three Eds flying in the air, Zip-fly disappears from the bridge to head to the landing spot.

When the three Eds got close to the landing zone, Zip-fly prepares himself for the fight by getting his katana hands ready to strike. Eddy notices that the masked boy is going to slash at them, so he grabs his shield and blocks the two swords. However, Zip-fly takes his feet and smacks into the shield, causing Eddy to fly back and crash into his friends as they land on the ground. The Eds got themselves back up on their feet, groaning from crashing into each other, and they turn towards their latest adversary.

"My, oh I have been waiting for the day to finally face you three once again in battle and defeat you for all of what you done," said Zip-fly.

"Zip-fly…" growled Eddy.

"Uh, excuse me but why are fighting us?" asked Double D. "Aren't you now free from your binds of Father and Mark, meaning you are free to do whatever you want?"

"Uh… I should think over what you have just said there," said Normadomus.

"He is right there," the Nobody replied. "Now that I am free, I am free to do whatever I please, even if it means getting rid of you and taking over your mission to go to Kingdom Hearts."

"Nice going Double D," muttered the small Ed.

"But why should you fight us? We haven't done anything to provoke you to fighting us and also the path to Kingdom Hearts is destroyed. There is no other way for you to get into the Realm of Darkness without using the Pure Hearted or my Keyblade."

"Yes, but can't you see that I have my mission in mind? You may have freed the Pure Hearted from their prisons, but they are still on this world and I can prevent them from leaving this world," said Zip-fly. "Plus if I can defeat you and get the Keyblade, I will use the power of the Pure Hearted to unlock another path to the Realm of Darkness and challenge the man that brought me into this existence for the grand prize!"

"Is this all for Jib?" asked Ed. "But I want to see what he looks like under that shadow disguise!"

"Oh don't worry about that, I'll make sure to keep you alive. It's just the Keyblade I'm seeking, but we'll see how this little fight will turn out."

"Man, I am getting tired of all this fighting," whined Eddy. "When are we going to get a chapter of relaxation and not worry about chasing Jib?"

"When we are done with this fight," answered Double D with the small Ed groaning in response.

"If this is how things are going to be, let's get this over with as fast as we can," said the greedy Ed. "I am getting sick of fighting everything that moves and I could use a break."

"Now not to sound cheesy, but I can give you one," said the Nobody, preparing a katana. "The only question is would you risk your life for this break?"

"Well, at least he's being different here," said Ed's hat. "Avoiding a common line by rephrasing it as a question does put him on a path to those who are more…"

Before the wizard can finish, the Nobody is up close in front of the Eds, katanas behind him ready to swing. Eddy and Double D catch the two blades, reacting fast enough, as Zip-fly steps back to prepare another attack. The two defending Eds are struggling to keep up with the blinding speeds of this Nobody, as they remember that their first fight was easier than now, and they can see that Zip-fly is not holding back this time. Once the boy in white is done, he allows the Eds to catch their breath before returning back to the fight.

Double D takes Joker's Wild and starts using his magic on Zip-fly, hoping that he can get an advantage by not fighting up close and personal. However the Nobody is moving too fast for the Ed, meaning his Fire and Blizzard spells are useless, and his Thunder proving to be effective to a certain extent. Double D is holding out on using Light, but he is thinking about using his Magic Spire and Distraction Limit Breaks for this fight, since he does not want to waste mana on his powerful spell.

Ed is having a better time with his magic, since his moves are more direct and take less time to complete, and his hat's Blizzard spells can hit the Nobody within a certain range. However, Zip-fly dodges all of the magic spells thrown at him, moving at blinding speeds, and he beats Ed's staff and hat off of him to prevent him from using his magic. The tall Ed grabs the end of his staff and swings it towards the Nobody, but Zip-fly dodges the incoming attack and Ed hits the small Ed instead.

Eddy is struggling in keeping up with the Nobody. So far the Ed can only use his shield to defend against Zip-fly's katanas, but using it to attack has failed him thanks to the speed of the masked boy. Eddy even tries to use his yo-yo to lasso in on the Nobody, trying to catch him and allow the others to strike, but even this tactic is proving ineffective. Zip-fly is showing that he is a real challenge for the Eds after all three use most of everything they have on this Nobody.

"Geez, this guy is tough," Eddy complained. "Not only is he strong, but he can't stand still for one second!"

"If only if there is a spell that can freeze time so we can defeat this Nobody," said Ed, looking up at his hat.

"Hey, I wish I knew Stop, but that move is hard to pull off and difficult maintain," the wizard hat replied.

"So that plan's out, leaving us with some unknown plan to get rid of this freak," said the small Ed.

"Well eventually we are going to break through his defenses and land some hits in," said Double D, raising his Keyblade. "If I were to duel it out, he will let his guard down and leave an opening for me."

"And what about us?" asked Eddy.

"If all goes according to plan, I should be able to stun him, which should leave him open for you to attack," the smart Ed explained.

"Are you willing to take that risk?" the Nobody questioned, getting up in Double D's face.

Zip-fly prepares to swing and Double D quickly reacts by raising his Keyblade up to defend and block the two katana blades. The white boy takes his hands and starts flailing away at the smart Ed, quickly using every sword move as Double D counters each move. Now noticing a moment to strike, Eddy prepares his shield and tosses right at the Nobody, the weapon's razor sides ready to cut through. Zip-fly notices the shield coming and he jumps up to dodge and send the shield right back to the Ed. The tall Ed follows this by using Thundara, causing the Nobody to flip back and allowing the lightning to strike down Double D.

Zip-fly lands gracefully on a rock, watching the Eds scramble to catch up with the Nobody. With a zipper smile growing on his face, Zip-fly prepares himself as the Eds try to get to the rock the Nobody is at. "Well, this is getting interesting," he said. "Not only have I gotten myself free from Father's bonds, I am now fighting the same boys I have beaten senseless back on their home world."

"Hey, we weren't beaten by you!" barked Eddy.

Zip-fly jumps down from the rock to dodge Eddy's shield, allowing the shield to fly through the air as the white boy lands behind the rock. However the shield begins to dive down towards the Nobody and Zip-fly jumps out of the way of that, making the weapon stick into the ground. Just as Money Maker is sticking out, the rock comes crashing down as Eddy and Double D are carrying their heavy friend like a battering ram, smashing through the thick rock and sending rocky shards all around.

With these smaller pieces of rock, Double D takes his Keyblade and starts batting the shards at the Nobody, prompting him to use his katana hands or dodge the shards. Eddy grabs onto his tall friend and drags him through the shard shower as he gives Ed one good toss at the Nobody. Zip-fly fails to stop the incoming Ed, taking the damaging blow from the boy's thick skull, as the two of them sail back. Zip-fly pushes against Ed and knocks the boy into the ground, only to find Normadomus sitting on Ed's back and ready with a Blizzara.

The Nobody prepares his hands to cut the hat into string, but the wizard jumps out of the way and blasts his spell, sending the chilled wind at the masked boy. Zip-fly begins to feel his body slowing down, but he breaks the shards forming on his body as he kicks Ed back over to his friend. The tall tumbles for a bit and the other Eds defend themselves from the incoming Zip-fly, blocking his blinding attack of katana swipes, as Double D casts Fire and got the Nobody back a few feet.

"OK, so Zip-fly can take Ed to the stomach and still fight," said Eddy. "How is that even possible? No one could even stand if they were hit by Ed, and we have proof of that."

"True, but we aren't exactly dealing with a normal human being here," Double D noted. "It may appear that Zip-fly could be hollow and can take all the damage he wants, without having anything internal damage to worry about."

"But I find that to be a little off considering that idea," said Normadomus, "but then I have seen some weird things in my time."

"Same here," added Ed.

Eddy grabs his shield and tosses it towards at Zip-fly, trying to get some more damage down. The masked boy takes his hands and blocks the shield from getting close, noticing one corner is very close to his face. Zip-fly does not notices Eddy and the others sailing towards the Nobody, thanks to the rings that are on Eddy's fingers. With the force of three Eds collapsing onto the shield, the metal scrap across the mask of Zip-fly's as Double D's Keyblade latches onto a zipper and unzips Zip-fly's head.

The head of the Nobody falls down to the ground, deflated of its air and the Eds land on the ground to notice the body is standing motionless. With a smile on their faces, the boys begin to celebrate when they notice Zip-fly's body moving and heading straight towards the Eds. Double D got his Keyblade ready to defend and stops the flurry of katana swipes, stopping the headless Zip-fly in his tracks. Normadomus prepares a Gravity spell and propels the body back from the terrified boys.

"But… But… How is that even possible?" stated the smart Ed. "Without a brain, he should collapse to the ground thanks to lack of control!"

"Now, now, isn't it clear to you that I'm not your average Nobody," the headless body responded, walking over to the deflated head and picking it up. "Of course a Nobody does have his other organs instead of his heart, but I was made to come apart and sewn back together. It would be impossible to take me down without figuring out a good strategy to do so."

The Nobody got his head near his body and the zipper automatically seals itself shut, inflating the head as the masked boy smiles evilly. "No way, the Nobody's a zombie!" stated Ed excitedly.

"Ed you dolt!" blurted Eddy, smacking the tall boy in the back of the head. "The freak's not a zombie! He's an unstoppable force that can somehow reattach his body parts and continue on fighting."

"That's… pretty much what a zombie is," said Normadomus, "except this one is more of the improbably fast variety."

"OK, this is getting me thinking," said the smart Ed. "Now that we know Zip-fly can come undone thanks to those zippers on his body, it has gave me an idea on how we can defeat him."

"You got something?" questioned the greedy Ed. "Well what is it Sock-head?"

"Well, we just have to dissemble him. Note that there are zippers on his shoulders, ankles, wrists, knees, waist and, dare I say, crotch, we can use those points to our advantage and bring Zip-fly down!"

"Say, that's not a bad idea. Man, this guy is a walking target now," stated Eddy. "If we known about this sooner, we could have won this fight sooner than expected!"

"Let's chop the alien's limb off!" stated Ed, holding his staff up. "It's just like that one commercial I saw for a game."

"Heh, are you willing to try that silly plan?" Zip-fly smirked. "Sure you have figured out that I can detach any part of my body, but you need to be faster than me if you want to go with that plan."

Zip-fly takes one of his hands and transforms it into something different this time, turning his not into a katana but into the shape of Kingdom Key. The Eds are quite surprise by this transformation and so is the Nobody, but it is hard to tell thanks to his mask. Transforming his other hand into the shape as his Keyblade hand, Zip-fly prepares himself to strike the Eds. The boys notice some other changes to the Nobody as well, noticing that the masked boy's jacket is getting a bit longer and some of the zippers are moving as well.

"Hang on, since when he can turn his hands into Keyblades?" asked the small Ed.

"I think that's the less of our worries," said Double D. "Our only concern is that Zip-fly has gained a new ability and possibly upgraded his body. This could spell disaster Eddy!"

Ed, on the other hand, is already charging at the Nobody with his staff spinning and charging with electricity. Zip-fly smiles wickedly as he takes his new hands and carves a circle in the ground, creating a protective barrier to protect him from the incoming Thundara attack. Ed shifts to using Terra, raising the ground inside of the barrier and launching the Nobody up into the air. The masked boy gives one full somersault before landing a Keyblade onto the Ed's staff. With a strong force emitting from the clash, the tall boy is being push back as Zip-fly continues to use his hands.

Eddy comes in with his shield locked onto the masked boy, but Zip-fly jumps up and lands on the boomeranging shield, launching himself right at the Ed. Eddy tries to stop the attack but he receives the Keyblade's cold hard shaft straight in the face. The force blows the small Ed away as the Nobody jumps off of the shield and lands right next to the smart Ed. With Keyblades ready to fight, the two Keybladers begin to duel, leaving the other two Eds to wonder what they are going to do next.

"Geez Louise, is there something that will stop this guy?" questioned Eddy, grabbing onto his throbbing head. "I feel like we aren't getting anywhere unless we find a way through this guy's stinking defenses."

During Double D and Zip-fly's fight, the two Keybladers "Now, it has been a while since I last controlled someone under my will," the Nobody said, changing a Keyblade back into a hand. "Let's see if I still got it in me!"

The masked boy creates some static on his hand and uses his speed to get up in Double D's personal space once again. Taking the charged hand, Zip-fly latches the palm onto the Ed's face and starts the takeover process. Smiling wildly, Zip-fly waits for his mind-control to work, but he is suddenly launched back from not one of the Eds' spells, but from a source deep within the Ed. The masked boy skids back and checks his hand, noticing that there are burn marks from touching Double D's face.

"What the…? My technique failed?" the Nobody questioned, staring at his hand. "But that should have gotten through to his mind! How could it have…?"

Before he can finish, Zip-fly begins to notice something sinister wrapped around the smart Ed. Invisible to the Eds, a dark and ominous shadow lurks over the boy, taking on the form of a disfigured man with a fiery head and burning red eyes. Zip-fly begins to feel queasy as he continues to stare at the ominous shadow. "What… What is that thing?" he asked. "I have never seen such a hideous, most powerful thing in all of my life!"

"Uh, what are you talking about?" questioned Eddy. "One: how can you see without eyeholes, and two: there isn't anything else besides Double D. That's pretty insulting if you asked me."

Shaking his head from the sight of the shadow, Zip-fly focuses back on the battle before him and shifts towards Eddy to strike. Taking his other Keyblade hand, the Nobody lunges forward to strike, only to be intercepted by Eddy's shield. The small Ed takes his shield and tries to use the cutting edge of his weapon to get at the zippers on Zip-fly, but the Nobody is moving too fast for the Ed to get at a zipper. The masked boy takes a hand and grabs at the Ed's shirt, flinging him up in the air and jumping up to take a Keyblade and smacking the boy into the ground.

Ed rushes over to help his fallen friend, hoping to get him cured up. Zip-fly comes back down and reaches out to grab Normadomus by the tip, tossing him to the side to leave Ed to defend for himself. Spinning around, the Nobody lands his Keyblade hand on the tall boy's staff, as the masked boy prepares a katana hand and tries to strike at the Ed's stomach. The tall Ed jumps back and launches Shadara in hopes of doing some damage and maybe inflict the Darkness effect, but he fails to remember that Zip-fly does not have any eyes.

The wizard hat got his mouth open and uses Gravity to knock him back and flying towards the Nobody. While Zip-fly is busy dealing with Ed, Normadomus got himself into position and prepares his mouth for one of the Nobody's zippers. Launching over the shoulder, the wizard grabs onto the zipper and unzips Zip-fly's left arm off of his body. Now noticing this, Zip-fly tries to grab the hat but Ed slams his staff down on the Nobody's head and bats him away to prevent getting his deflated arm.

Wanting to get his arm back, Zip-fly turns his other hand back to normal and charges at the Ed, only to notice Eddy skidding across the battlefield and grabbing onto the arm. The Nobody lets out a growl and transforms his hand into a katana as he starts to pursue the sledding Eddy, who is speeding along the ground with an icy shield. Taking the deflated arm, the small Ed starts unzipping the other three zippers on the arm to break the arm down to only the hand. Tossing the other parts of the arm, Eddy grips onto the hand and tries to figure out how to transform the hand into a Keyblade.

However, the small Ed did not expect to toss the extra arm pieces at the Nobody and the arm begins to reattach to Zip-fly's body. Eddy eventually got the hand to transform into Kingdom Key and, with a smile on his face, takes his shield and heads back to face-off against the incoming Nobody. With two Keyblades ready to clash, the duelers close in and prepare their weapons in hopes of bringing one of them down. In a split second, the two Keybladers collide and Eddy is the victor of the clash, sending the shaft right at the waist of Zip-fly and cutting him from his legs.

With the legs continuing to run until deflating, the body of Zip-fly lands on the slippery ice and watches the small Ed skid off, as the boy taunts the chopped Nobody from far away. Zip-fly lets out a growl in anger as he uses his arms to push him along the ice and to get moving. Now up to speed, the Nobody watches the small Ed in anger as he prepares a katana, ready to cut the boy, when he notices Double D coming up. The two of them clash for a bit but Zip-fly continues to slide on the ice to catch up to Eddy in hopes of getting his hand back.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Ed walks up to where the deflated legs are and picks them up to see if he can wear them. The tall Ed notices that his friend is in danger, and he jumps onto the ice to slide over to where Eddy is, by using his stomach for better speed. Zip-fly finally catches up to the greedy Ed, where he starts to use his katana at the boy's feet to cause him to lose his footing on his shield, and the Ed loses his concentration as the Nobody's hand slips from his grasp and reattaches to its rightful owner.

Grinning widely, Zip-fly wiggles his fingers as he hears the sound of Ed coming close. The Nobody spins around and stares at the incoming magic boy as an evil plan begins to form in his head. Taking his hands Zip-fly prepares his spell that he tried to use on Double D, and successfully takes over the mind of Ed and got him to stop in his tracks. Eddy and Double D notice this spell and try to stop the Nobody, but Zip-fly takes his hands and swings katanas around to prevent the boys from getting anywhere close. The hypnotized Ed hands Zip-fly his legs back and the Nobody reattach his legs back onto his body, inflating them as the masked boy gives a firm kick to the heavy Ed's face and knocking him out of his spell.

"Ed, are you all right?" asked Double D, sounding very concern for his friend.

"Why do red velvet waffles need cream cheese icing?" the tall Ed questioned, going off in a random tangent.

"I don't know Ed, I've never tried red velvet waffles before," the smart Ed recalled.

"Well at least he's his usual self, even though it's hard to tell if he's normal or not," commented Eddy.

"So Ed boys, you have tried to dissembled me but to no avail," stated Zip-fly. "As you can see, I can reattach all of my body parts with no effort whatsoever, allowing me to get back on my feet, literally, and continue on with the fight. So then… how about we finish this fight once and for all?"

The Nobody has his hands in both a Keyblade and a katana, and in his sight are three targets that he can bring down. Creating another circle in the ground, the white boy disappears from view and reappears behind Double D, whacking the boy in the back with the Keyblade as the Nobody blocks Eddy's shield. The smart Ed enters the circle and is caught in the Nobody's trap, getting stuck in a protective barrier as Zip-fly launches up into the air. He prepares a leg to kick Double D, but Ed intervenes by grabbing his staff and blocks the incoming attack. Normadomus opens his mouth and launches a Gravitara spell, propelling the Nobody away from the Eds as the tall Ed uses Terra to free his friend.

Double D quickly pulls out the charm Princess Kendall gave to him back at the Platinum Kingdom and the Ed clutches onto the charm for his dear life. Zip-fly makes an attempt to strike Double D during his summon, but Normadomus uses an Aeroga spell to protect the smart Ed and blow the Nobody back. After buying the Ed some time, Double D dangles the charm in front of him, with the stone glowing brightly, and everyone waits to see what the medium Ed is summoning. Zip-fly recovers from his fall and makes another move, but he could feel his legs stuck into the ground, as Ed used a Terra spell to bind the masked boy to the ground.

During the summon, Double D is walking through a bamboo forest, with a slight fog covering the area. He could see a shadow in the distance, a person to be exact, and he could see that this person is being hold up by a pole. As the fog clears, the Ed could see that this is the person that he is summoning, and the person looks into Double D's eyes with a determined look. The two nod their hands in unison and the person jumps up into the air, grabbing onto the pole that he is using, and lands right behind the Ed, with both getting into a fighting position as the bamboo forest disappears and a shockwave is sent across the battlefield.

The person Double D summoned is a young man, very fit due to his time spent training, and very young to have gray hair. This newcomer appears to be a warrior of some sorts, as he wears loose clothes of all black, with a tunic covering most of his chest and leaving the left side of his body exposed, and pants to cover his short legs. In his the boy's hand is a slender purple staff that appears to be made out of bamboo, with one end having a shoot sticking out and red leaves decorating the end. An unusual beige hat covers his head and leaves a dark look for his eyes, but he appears to be friendly to all living things.

"Sweet, two charms on one world!" stated Eddy. "What's the special occasion?"

"Well I don't feel like we should waste these charms when we get to the end," said Double D. "Besides, I got a feeling this gentleman is going to help us in defeating Zip-fly."

"It appears that you have been in some trouble," said the summon. "Allow me, Lin Chung, to help you in this fight in any way possible."

"Heh, you think you're going to stop me with a summon?" questioned Zip-fly. "Prankster has a hard time defeating me with his summons so what makes you think he's going to stop me?"

"Sheesh, this guy is tough," mumbled Eddy.

"This person sure looks tough," said the warrior, adjusting his hat. "He is obviously someone to be working for High Roller, but I don't recall ever seeing him from where I come from."

"You never dealt with a Nobody before, have you?" asked the smart Ed with his summon returning a no. "Well this will be your first fight with one and I have to say he is tougher than he appears."

"I have dealt with plenty of adversaries from where I came," the boy named Lin Chung answered, spinning his staff, "so I should have something that will help you defeat this enemy."

The masked boy disappears from the Eds' sight and reappears in front of the newcomer, katanas ready to cut and slice. Lin Chung quickly reacts by countering with his staff and blocks every one of Zip-fly's attack, watching all of the swings with his sharp eyes. The Nobody backs away for a moment to figure out a plan in how to defeat this summon, when he hears the sound of Eddy and Ed charging up on the Nobody. Turning around for the moment, Lin Chung takes his staff and aims it at the Nobody, flicking the butt to allow shoots of bamboo to fly out.

The small bamboo hit the cutting blade of Zip-fly's katana, obviously not harming its intentional target, and the two Eds are beaten down by Zip-fly's Keyblade hand. Lin Chung and Double D come up from behind with their weapons in hand, but Zip-fly spins around and slashes right at the two, ineptly knocking them back instead of cutting them with his katana blade. Lin Chung lands gracefully and skids for a bit, while his summoner tumbles across the ground, and the young man spots the Nobody heading right at him.

The warrior got his staff up to defend himself against the fury of blades, blocking every one of Zip-fly's attacks. Double D recovers from his fall and got back up on his feet, all while watching the fight. He got his Keyblade ready and tries to use Fire in hopes of trapping the Nobody in the ring, but the masked boy dodges the attack. Lin Chung uses his staff to jump up and dodge the incoming flames, only to then jump up high to dodge one of Zip-fly's Keyblade swings.

Eddy got his shield on fire, thanks to Ed's magic, and he chunks the flaming shield at the Nobody. Zip-fly disappears to allow the shield to head right for Lin Chung, but the warrior takes his staff and bats it away from him, sending it right at Zip-fly but he fails to notice the shield coming. Now with his head burning with flames, Ed comes running up with his staff charging with electricity and zaps the Nobody with a powerful Thundara. Double D steps in and provides one good hit to the head, and he grabs the zipper to pull off Zip-fly's head once again.

The tall Ed grabs on the deflated head, forgetting that this head is still on fire, and he watches the summoned jump up into the air. Lin Chung takes his staff and flicks a few shoots down into Zip-fly. The headless body begins to freak out in pain from the pointy shoots, shivering and twitching in pain, as the Eds use everything they have to defeat their headless enemy. However, Zip-fly can still fight and he takes his hands to block all of their attacks, despite not having a head to control or see where the attacks are coming from.

The Nobody got his hands ready to strike, disappearing from the boys' sight as he reappears in front of Ed and beats the head from his hands. Zip-fly then takes the shoots Lin Chung shot at him and flings them out of his body, through a small hole in the Nobody's wrist zippers, allowing the shoots to hit the Ed boys. Lin Chung grabs a few of those shoots as the head reattaches to its body and inflates once again. "Man, I thought that is going to be over," the greedy Ed sighed.

"This isn't over!" the Nobody snapped. "I still have one trick left, and I'll make sure to eliminate you all!"

Zip-fly reaches around on his back to grab onto the circle zipper on his coat. He unzips the circle, allowing the cover to drop down to the ground and allow whatever is hidden inside to come out. As the Eds and Lin Chung wait, they begin to notice Zip-fly twitching and they can see that the Nobody is smiling widely. Two thin spikes shot out from the back of Zip-fly and begin to unfold, revealing a messy glop of large wings at least a yard long each, and a single flap brought the Nobody up into the air. Normadomus prepares to fire a Blizzaga spell and Ed with a Thundara spell, but Zip-fly takes a dive towards the Eds with katanas ready and swings at all three, only to miss by a Reflect.

Zip-fly got back up in the air and turns around to face the Eds again, switching his hands into Keyblades and he tries again. His speed is uncanny, moving faster than the Eds can read before, but they still manage to out-maneuver the flying Nobody with only a small margin of error. The masked boy is getting to his boiling point, as he once again makes an attempt to slice through the Eds in hopes to take them down.

"There's got to be something to take this guy down!" Eddy whines. "At least the other two had weaknesses. How come this guy doesn't?"

"I think I may know the answer," said Double D. "I recall way back when we first met Zip-fly on our world, and he was trying to defeat us the first time around."

"Yeah?"

"Well, as you may have known, the zippers of his can come unattached from his body, right?"

"Yeah?" echoed Eddy.

"So if the zippers are the key, then his direct weak point is..." Double D takes his Keyblade and aims it at Zip-fly's chest.

"His chest?" asked Eddy. "How are we supposed to hit that when he's crazy fast?"

"Allow me to try," offered Lin Chung, twirling his staff.

The young man pulls out a few bamboo shoots from his pocket and loads them into his staff, and he takes aim at the center of the X on Zip-fly's chest. He carefully gets his shot align and flicks a few shoots down the staff and out the other end, all aiming at the Nobody's chest. Zip-fly notices the bamboo shoots heading towards him and he deliberately slices through all of the shoots, all while taking a direct blow from a surprise Ed Thundara attack. The Nobody came out unscathed, but the wings are weakening, so his altitude begins to drop but he remains in the air.

"That's a nice strategy, but you have to come up with a better one," the Nobody stated. "As long as I can read your attacks from a distance, there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"It's useless," Eddy mumbles. "We're giving everything we got and he's taking everything like it's nothing."

"There is still hope," Lin Chung said, tipping his hat down slightly.

He holds out his staff and got it to spin in the air, allowing the purple staff to hover before shooting the staff high into the air. Lin Chung jumps up into the air and grabs onto his spinning staff, causing him to spin along with his staff and allow gravity to send them back down to earth. Zip-fly wonders what the warrior is up to when he notices that the young man is now heading straight up at the flying Nobody. Taking his katanas to help with his defense, Lin Chung clashes with the Nobody and starts to drill through the blades.

Strangely and surprisingly, the attack is working for the warrior but it is a slow process. Zip-fly lets out a growl as he tries to break free from the trade, trying to prevent getting speared by Lin Chung's staff. Zip-fly uses his blinding speed to disappear from the block and reappear as he watches Lin Chung continue to fly up and loop around to head right back at the Nobody. The masked boy snarls as his hands transform into Keyblades and launches up at Lin Chung in hopes of knocking the warrior back down to earth and hopefully put an end to the summon.

"Uh Double D, are we going to do something?" asked Ed.

"Yes Ed, we are going to do something," replied Double D. "We need to help Lin Chung in defeating Zip-fly and all of that lies within hitting that X on Zip-fly's chest and removing all of his zippers so he does not have a chance to fight back!"

"Well you better come up with something!" growled Eddy. "This fight has gone on for way too long and I want to get off of this world!"

"Patience Eddy, I just need to get myself up there and…" An idea strikes Double D hard in his mind and he quickly tells his friends about it. A grin appears on Eddy's face and he drops his shield down on the ground, preparing to go with what Double D has in mind, and he grabs onto Ed's and the smart Ed's hats as he got spinning on the shield. Once getting up to speed, the small Ed releases the medium Ed from his grasp, sending Double D high up into the air, and the smart Ed got his Keyblade glowing with Light as the boy starts spinning around in a circle.

Now a glowing ball of light, Double D heads straight for the two flying duelers in hopes of putting an end to the fight. The smart Ed's Keyblade touches down on the Nobody and smacks Zip-fly all the way down to the ground. Both Double D and Lin Chung break out of their moves as an Aeroga catches them and a recovering Zip-fly tries to get back up on his feet. Now with the opportunity, Lin Chung strikes at the center of the X with his staff, piercing the zipper and removing the staff to allow the air to seep out from the body.

The Nobody looks down at the growing wound as two of the Eds quickly unzip the arms from the body and drag them away. As the body begins to deflate, Zip-fly lets out a small laugh as his legs collapse on him. "Well, it has been a good run here in this universe," he started. "It's probably best that I return from whence I came and rejoin my fallen brother."

"What are you talking about?" asked Eddy. "Are you saying that you are glad you are dying and joining Blitzer in the afterlife?"

"No, I am going to be reuniting with Prankster in hopes of becoming our original form," the Nobody answered.

"But wasn't he dragged off by one of my summoning charms?" asked Double D, sounding cautious about mentioning the name of the summon. "There is that chance that he could be alive and possibly eating pumpkin pies."

"Yes, but I can sense that my brother is dead and he is waiting for me in the darkest part of where your journey will come to its end. I have been waiting for this moment and now the moment is here for all of us."

"Uh, isn't Blitzer your brother as well?" asked Ed.

"And what do you mean by 'where your journey will come to its end?'" questioned Lin Chung.

"Heh, that Unversed was just one of Jib's personal creations, made specifically to hunt down the Pure Hearted and Keyblades. He was created around the time we were brought here and we presumed he was our brother… all before our memories came back to us. And as for your journey, you will be heading down the same path Jib is walking, the same path that leads to Kingdom Hearts."

"OK, my head is hurting," groaned Eddy.

"An everlasting void where only the pureblood Heartless roam free, worlds stray from their paths and become consume in the darkness, and all you have been for will be put to the test to see if you are worthy of travelling any deeper to the center of the universe."

"The center of the universe?" echoed Double D.

"Wait… are you talking about _the_ Everlasting Void," asked Normadomus, "the very void that is a permanent black hole where it is said to house fallen worlds, and the center of countless Heartless?"

"My, you are definitely smart, Normadomus," said Zip-fly. "Yes, the very Everlasting Void that is also said to lead to the center of the universe and quite possibly Kingdom Hearts."

"Hold on… there's no way that a black hole could have the same definition such as what you are describing," said Double D. "Sure there is that wormhole that connects two black holes together, but for one to go all of the way to the center of the universe?"

"Hey, since when does normal science work around here?" asked the small Ed. "Besides, we haven't gotten all of our answers and he dwindling away!"

"It's too bad that you aren't getting all of your answers," said Zip-fly, on the verge of collapsing. "I do want to tell you all of that I know, but I will save it for another time. But before I go, I want to ask you this: what is that shadow haunting the medium Ed?"

"Shadow?" questioned everyone, looking at Double D.

"Are you probably referring to Jib?" the smart Ed asked.

"No… this presence around you has a different aura than Jib's. What I'm sensing is clearly stronger than everyone I ever felt before. Is this… the one that is sealed away?"

"The one that is sealed away?" echoed everyone.

"Hundreds of years ago, before the creation of the Unversed, Heartless and Nobody, a powerful being came into the universe in hopes of taking it over. This being's mysterious arrival brought panic and fear to the worlds of the past, due to the being's invincible body. But the Grim Reaper used his powers to seal the being away in a black tree, sealing the being there to the end of time, and from there no one has ever dared to go near that tree again."

"A tree, you say," said Lin Chung, scratching his chin as he remembers a particular tale.

"I know of that legend," said Ed's hat. "That legend definitely dates back before the creation of the Heartless, but how did you know of that legend?"

"Who else? Jib, the Destroyer of Light, that's who."

"So… are you saying that this being who is sealed away is the one that created Jib?" questioned Double D, shaking at the knees now with the thought of the Man in Shadows haunting him.

"Yes it is, but no one knows who is lurking inside of that tree," said the Nobody. "All who knows who this being are dead or walking to Kingdom Hearts. If I were you, I better find the Everlasting Void and stop Jib before he gets to Kingdom Hearts."

With those final words, the body of Zip-fly collapses to the ground, completely deflated of air, and the body begins to fade away. The Eds and Lin Chung watch the Nobody fade away, staring at the purple ground before there are no traces left, and Eddy lets out an irritated growl. "Great, we are on the verge of completion and now we are more confused than ever!" he stated. "When are we going to get all of these answers and be done with this mess?"

"Will you just relax Eddy?" stated Double D. "Our first priority is to drop the others off in Traverse Town, gather some supplies, locate this Everlasting Void and then go into this place to find Jib, and then we can get all of the answers we have been seeking."

"… You said we're heading back to Traverse Town, right?" the small Ed asked, sounding calmer. "I can go for a new shield, especially after the abuse it has gone through. All of that spinning tore up the dollar and cent sign."

"And I want to get a new staff," said Ed. "This is kinda making me want to do some dark things."

"I wish that I can help you in whatever you are doing, but I have nothing that will help you at this point," said Lin Chung, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Well, what you did here is all we can ask of you to do," said Double D. "Thank you for your assistance here and, if by chance, we can visit you on your world wherever it may be."

"It would be an honor to have such a brave warrior and his friends to be fighting at my side, along with my team and for Big Green," the warrior said, bowing before the Ed.

Glowing in a bright light, the young man disappears before the Eds' eyes, leaving the boys alone and left to make the trek up to their Gummi ship. "Well, time to get going," said Eddy. "I really want to drop the twerps off before we get to fight Jib."

"Say kid, the Nobody mentioned something about a shadow haunting you," said Normadomus, with Ed walking right next to Double D. "Is it by chance that shadow dealing with what happened in your Awakening?"

"It could be, but I don't know," the smart Ed answered. "Unless I see this shadow for myself, it's hard to see what it is. I sure hope it isn't that Man in Shadows…"

OOO

The atmosphere is dark and full of shadows, as there are no signs of pure light in this dark land. Sounds of pureblood Heartless roam across the grounds, searching for something to eat as echoing footsteps walk across a path created for him. The man, the shadowy being known as Jib the Destroyer, passes by several smaller Heartless and the occasional guardians protecting a gate, only slowing the man as he progresses deeper into the darkness. When he reaches a clear opening, Jib feels the presence of another man behind him and looks down to notice his shadows are fading away.

"Whoever you are, you are not going to defeat me. I was created by the strongest being alive, and in no way are you stronger than my master."

"You are a fool Jib. You really believe that you are stronger than I? Obviously you have forgotten who your master looks like."

The shadow turns around and spies the man called the Man in Shadows standing right behind him, hands crossed his chest and shadows dancing around the man. "It has been a long time since your creation. I believed you have strayed away from your mission and seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts for your own."

Jib takes a good long stare at the Man in Shadows, looking deep into the cold red eyes, and the shadow lets out a laugh. "Are you saying that I am your creation and I am falling down the path of self-indulgence? Look, I am loyal to my master and I will do anything to please him, even if it means killing people, destroying worlds and manipulating innocent lives into unlocking the path to Kingdom Hearts."

"Liar!" shouted the Man in Shadows, his entire being erupting in energy. "I have been watching you ever since your creation and I noticed you have been straying away from my intentions. You want to have Kingdom Hearts all to yourself, gaining all of that power so you can get enough power to overthrow me and become the absolute ruler of this universe!"

There is silence between the two beings. What the Man in Shadows is causing the Destroyer to think about all he has done in previous years, but instead he lets out a small chuckle before bursting out an evil laugh. "Oh you really think that is what I'm going for? Now I understand that you are upset because you are not going for Kingdom Hearts yourself, but who am I to stop you from achieving that? You can simply past by me and continue on; I'm a nice guy to allow you get the mythical kingdom."

A sharp blow to the throat pierces Jib, thanks to a shadow from the angry man. The Destroyer casually takes a hand and removes the shadow from his neck, crushing the shadow as the Man in Shadows continues to erupt energy. "You are a fool in believing I will continue on to collect Kingdom Hearts. I cannot move anywhere thanks to my prison and if I were to move, you will simply turn against me and stab me in the back. I will not fall for your tricks and I will show you the true power of your creature right here to prevent you from going on to Kingdom Hearts!"

"My creator is Aku, and I know you are not him. He is sealed away in a tree on a mysterious world, stranded there for all of eternity, and it was his goal of acquiring Kingdom Hearts so he can free himself and receive infinite power. You are a fraud and in no way connected to me or him. I must get back to my mission of getting to the final gate…"

The Destroyer of Light turns his back on the man who proclaimed to be his creator and starts to head down the path leading him to his destination. He can still feel the presence of the Man in Shadows behind him and Jib comes to a stop to say one final thing to the man. "And thank you from freeing me from these shadows. It has been a long time since I have last seen this body, and I do say… it has been a very long time indeed."

OOO

**End of Act III**

* * *

*relief sigh* Man, this act took forever to complete!

I have to say, I am glad that I am done with the normal worlds! … Well, only one more trip to Traverse Town, but beyond that I am done for this story. Seriously, I have spent way too long on this story that I am falling behind on my schedule! … Well, for those who are joining late, it wouldn't matter to you what so ever. As far as I am concern, as long as I get this story done, then I can move on to my next project and I can get the rest of my ideas done!

… This will take me forever.

So, this is the end of Hollow Bastion everyone! Not only have I brought a fresh new change to the castle, but I revision every aspect by bringing in two shows that I like instead of one, have a living castle, reverse the love interest, AND put in more boss battles for _one world_ on _**one trip to that world!**_ And speaking of, one of those bosses is a Sephiroth-typed character. Yeah, it goes to show you that we can make a _Kingdom Hearts_ story good if we know what we are doing.

OK so we all know that Kingdom Hearts has a bunch of zippers going on with their characters and I have made a character dedicated to the works. But I begin to think "these zippers could serve more than just a fashion statement" and now here's Zip-fly behaving like a _Left 4 Dead_ zombie… well one that can come back together without physically zipping himself back together. … By that, I mean take his hands and zip himself up. So if any of you see someone like Zip-fly on the street, just go up to him, start unzipping and pray to God that you don't get cut into ribbons.

And if you are wondering about why on earth did I put Lin Chung in this chapter instead of someone else for a summon… well… strangely enough I like him. At first I kinda thought he was a Marty Stu, but then I saw him for who he is and I thought he will be perfect to be at the side of the Ed boys. And to note the other members of Squad One will be a terrible line-up, even though Mystique Sonya and Jumpy Ghostface wouldn't be that bad (the bad part for Jumpy is Ed's allergies and also Sonya dealing with Ed's odor), I hate Mighty Ray and I seriously doubt Mr. No Hands will never do anything considering he's more lazier than Eddy! … And note: I'm kinda on the meh-meh side when it comes to _Hero: 108_.

OK, so I got that done, that just leaves the Eds with Jib and then… the Man in Shadows or Aku? … Third story at best, people.

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is some final goodbyes, the return of a requested character, and back in good ol' Traverse Town!


	24. Act IV, Ch 24: Traverse Town IV

Finally, after waiting for so long, we have made it to the end of this story. Not only am I done with the worlds for this story, but I am going to be starting up my own take on the End of the World, along with having an epic final battle for this grand story of mine! I have been waiting for the moment to where we begin the final act and the final boss battle!

OK, so I have waited long enough for this story to be done, and now I have the Eds returning to Traverse Town for the final time in this story, all to get their final supplies before leaving for the Everlasting Void. Question is, I still have yet to give Double D a new Keyblade while the others are getting new weapons here, plus I am still leaving some questions left unanswered. Will I have some answers and will I ever give Double D a new weapon by the time this story ends? I guess we're about to find out!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Four – The Final Farewells

OOO

The clock is slowly ticking away, seconds passing by as the _Midnight Hummer_ slowly makes its trip all of the way back to Traverse Town. The passengers inside of the Gummi ship are clearly bored and tired from all of the traveling, and they are relieved that they are heading to a town that will heal their wounds and recline back from constantly traveling. At the _Midnight Hummer_'s side is the _Silent Striker_, a former enemy now turned ally, and a Gummi ship that is carrying the six Pure Hearted. Double D told the Lyoko Warriors about using the Pure Hearted for possibly aiding them in getting to Jib, so the three ships have their course set for Traverse Town.

The three Gummi ship pass by the many worlds the Eds have visit on their journey, missing a few that belong to some of the Pure Hearted, and also some that the Eds have yet to visit. The three boys are grateful to be helping out the universe they are living in, despite going against what they were told some time ago. Now that they have the respect of most of the worlds they have visited, the Eds now approach the town where lost souls come to stay, all to gather supplies, get new weapons, drop off the others, and hopefully get some information about this Everlasting Void they heard about.

The three Gummi ship lands at the outer edge of the town and, one by one, the children enter through the gates to either head off to their homes, a shop, a restaurant, or to explore their surroundings. The Eds are the last to enter, watching the others explore the vast town, as Jérémie offers to take the other cul-de-sac children to be with the others. Jonny kindly refuses since his reputation of being the Gourd is going to be an unwelcoming invite to the others, which will allow the boy to explore Traverse Town while Sarah and Jimmy head off to TOM's home.

After watching everyone heading in their separate directions, the Eds decide to split up to go accomplish different tasks. Eddy is heading around town to see if he can get a new shield, while Ed is going to Lilienne's shop to see if she would allow the tall Ed to get a new staff, and Double D to go to the General Store and restock on some Potions. As the smart Ed is walking, he notices Mark and Marie wandering around for a bit, with the blue-haired girl giving the brunette a hard time, but the teen has a smile on his face as he tries to please his new girlfriend.

"Hi-ya Double D!" stated a female voice.

The medium boy jumps from the sudden outburst and the boy turns around to find the blonde he first met when he appeared in this town. "Oh… hello there…" the Ed started, trying to remembering her name, "… Dee-Dee, is it?"

"Wow, you remember me!" the blonde stated. "Well it has been a while since we last met so you might as well forget who I am."

"True, but I try not to forget a face of everyone I met, even if we haven't met in several months."

"And speaking of, you have become quite a hero throughout the universe!" Dee-Dee stated. "Word has been going around you and your friends traveling around the universe trying to say the kings and the Pure Hearted, and everyone is getting wild up to see the newest Keyblade Master coming to Traverse Town!"

"Really? There are people coming here to see…" There is something within that sentence that got the smart Ed thinking. "Wait a minute… I am not a Keyblade Master," he started. "I am just very good at wielding this weapon of mine and I've slain several enemies on our journey."

"Several of who are the toughest villains in the universe, including that squid-face and even Father!"

"That I am not certain of," Double D replied, rubbing his neck. "He sort of burst into flames when we defeated him, so we don't know if we really beaten him or he retreated."

"But the thing is that you beat Father!" said Dee-Dee. "You deserved to be treated like a hero and everyone in town wants to help in the celebration."

"I… I'm grateful that you are doing this, but I… we're not in the mood for any sort of celebration," said the smart Ed, trying not to disappoint the girl. "You see, me and my friends are going to be leaving soon in hopes of heading to a place call the Everlasting Void and go down the black hole to see if we can stop the Destroyer of Light."

The blonde is staring deep into Double D's green eyes, looking possibly at his soul as her minds begins to form sentences to say. "… Sorry, but I can't help you with that," said the girl. "Why don't you ask my brother or TOM about something about that? They know plenty of things and maybe they might help you."

"Well visiting TOM is one of the things that I want to do while I am here," said the medium Ed. "It's a pleasure seeing you again Dee-Dee. Perhaps we'll meet again another time."

"OK, see you later hero," the blonde responded, giving a friendly wave as she takes off.

Dee-Dee heads off to one random part of town, leaving Double D to be by himself as the Ed starts to explore the town alone. He knows quite a lot about this town through his many stops, knowing where some stores are and when people are walking to and fro, but this is the first time he is experiencing something entirely different. There are people coming out from their homes and businesses to look at the approaching hero of the universe, all simply amazed by the presence of this single boy. A few of them start to cheer, clap and woo to the passing Ed, all praising him for his accomplishments.

Double D can feel the warmth that is coming from the people, feeling that he and his friends have done quite a lot to earn them this praise. But then there is part of him that feels like he does not deserve this praise, as he was the one that got the Destroyer of Light on his way to Kingdom Hearts. And then it is going to be up to him, his friends or Mark about all of what the teen has done to get everyone into this situation, and part of the Ed is making feel terrible about telling the others about the teen's misdeeds. Double D truly feels he does not deserve this praise, so he continues to wander around town to see where he can enjoy some quiet.

The smart Ed wanders into the plaza, noticing there are hardly any people walking about. The boy continues to walk until he is in front of the fountain, standing right in front of the ring of water as he looks up at the five bronze heroes. In the Ed's mind, if the Eds were to get a statue in their honor after this ordeal is over, would it be worth it in the end? Staring deep at the soulless eyes of the five heroes feels as if it has been an eternity, with the sounds of the bell tower slowly tick away waiting for the moment to ring its bell.

Double D's mind returns to reality when he hears the sounds of footsteps stopping in front of the fountain and the boy turning to see who this person is. At his side is the man he met back at Hollow Bastion, one of the Pure Hearted, and he is looking at the statues as Double D. The man notices the Ed is staring at him and he shifts his attention to the boy. "Is there something troubling you?" the man asked.

"… Huh? Oh, yes, yes there is," replied the Ed. "I've got a lot on my mind lately, what with being called a hero and all."

"I see. I've been hearing about that throughout this town, with you and your friends being heroes for this universe, and wanting to celebrate in your honor."

"I really appreciate what they are doing, but I don't feel like we really need this kind of reward."

"Why not? It is not often that a hero chosen by the Keyblade is given such an opportunity such as this. You should join the people of this town in their little celebration before you leave for whatever you three are going to do."

"But that's the thing. Do I really deserve a celebration in my honor for not only getting the Destroyer of Light a free ticket to the ultimate source of power, but also get one of my friends shunned by the others and feel ashamed for his mistake. He was the one that got us into this whole ordeal and I really hate to see the look on his face if he or I were the ones to break the news to the other children."

"It seems like you are in quite a predicament," said the man, looking down at his reflection. "I came from a remote village on some unknown world and I was probably the happiest boy around… until my village came under attack and my people were enslaved. I was entrusted with this sword here that will help save my people, but I was not strong enough to beat the being that enslaved my people and I was thrown into this future where I was left to wander the worlds."

"Wait… you were from the past?" questioned Double D. "So you were one of the Pure Hearted of that past?"

"I was, and I am still a Pure Hearted to this day. It was because of that pure heart that threw me into this future to prevent me from beating Aku and now I hear he has been sealed away on another world, lost and forgotten as I am left here to wander this universe hoping to find someone that will help me return to my time."

"All of that and you end up in Father's grasp and were part of a plan to get a gateway open to the Realm of Darkness," said the smart Ed. "It may not have been what you are looking for, but the universe is big so you might find your answer out there."

"Yes," the man replied. There is silence between the two for some time, each with something to say but not sure who should start, until the Pure Hearted starts again. "Tell me, do you believe you should wield the Keyblade?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Even though you are this far in your journey, do you believe the Keyblade made the right choice in choosing you as its partner? Are you worthy enough to continue on traveling the path you are on, knowing that you are uncertain that you are willing to face the greatest evil waiting at the end of the path?"

Double D starts to wonder what the Pure Hearted is talking about. Considering that he was chosen to be the wielder of the Keyblade without remembering how he acquired the weapon in the first place. How did he obtain such a weapon as the Keyblade, when he recalls events that will corrupt anyone and stain their hearts from wielding such a weapon? Even so, is there something that is giving him the rights to wield the Keyblade and what could this particular item be?

"Your mind appears to be figuring out why you are chosen to wield the Keyblade," said the Pure Hearted. "The answer will come to you in time my friend, whether it is now or in years. I have been asking myself why I am still traveling in this time when I should focus on finding a way home."

"I guess we may never know," said Double D, noticing that the man is leaving the fountain. "Uh excuse me sir, but I didn't catch your name!"

The man stops in his tracks and kept his back facing the Ed. The Pure Hearted is standing there in silence, trying to figure out what to say as he stands there perfectly still. "… My name is of no importance to you," he answered. "I have been wandering around this time with no name and continue to do so, all with only a nickname as simple as Jack. It has been with me ever since and I do not mind people calling me that."

"Oh. Well, it's good to see you then," said Double D, uncertain if he should call the man by his nickname.

The Pure Hearted has a faint smile on his face as he heads off for an unknown part of town. Double D turns around and takes a good long look at the statue before deciding to go look for his friends. Now feeling like he wants to know more behind why the Keyblade chose him, the Ed made a mental note in asking Normadomus about how do people earn the Keyblade, as the smart boy notices Eddy heading straight for the medium Ed.

"Hey Double D, there you are!" stated Eddy, running up to the smart Ed.

"Eddy, you're back from finding a new shield?" Double D questioned, looking at the said item.

"Yeah I found this sweet thing from a random stranger and I asked him to trade my old beat-up shield. All it took was half of all our Munny and I have hit the jackpot on shields!"

"Wait a minute… you gave him half of our Munny for a broken shield?" the smart Ed balked. "Eddy, you know you should look around for a better deal than waste our Munny like that! Besides, we need that Munny in case we need anything to help us get to the Everlasting Void!"

"Oh will you relax?" the small Ed calmly replied. "I got the shield for half-off after I mentioned I was with you. He said he wanted all of our Munny but decided to cut it in half and trade my shield for this."

Eddy holds up the shield he has acquire from the salesman, and Double D can see why the man wanted such a high price for the shield. The weapon is in a shape of a black cauldron, which appears to be hard to throw since the technique is mainly Eddy's attack and the shield has an odd shape, and there are some gold coins seeping out from the top. Double D begins to wonder how Eddy is going to use this shield, but he grabs the shield from the small Ed's hands to check it over and get a feel on how to wield it, finding the name of the shield to be "Heavy Potluck" on the underside.

"Now that you shown me this, I'm surprised you found a shield in town now that I remember we can't find one here in town," said the smart Ed.

"Well the guy that I got this shield from was a wandering guy from that United Kingdom, so it probably made sense for the guy to bring a shield here to sell it to someone like me, or to some unlucky sap to scam them out of their Munny."

"Yes, but not at a high price such as that," said Double D. "I sure hope that shield is worth it when we leave this town."

"I think that this is going to be the only shield that I'm going to be needing for a long time," said Eddy, slicing the air using the handle on the cauldron. "It's really sturdy, swings like a dream, and I can feel like I can earn a bigger amount of Munny with this thing. Hey, maybe I can use this to pay back the Munny I spent on this shield!"

"That does sound like a plan, but if everything goes according to plan, we might not be going to spend all of our hard earned Munny on possibly all of the Jawbreakers we can buy."

"And what are you talking about?" the small Ed asked.

Before the medium Ed can speak, the figure of the tall Ed comes running down the street and heading right for his friends. There is a look of excitement and fear on the boy's face and the other two Eds are panicking on how to stop their friend. Before they could react, the tall Ed crashes into the other two and his hat is sent flying into the fountain, landing on top of the water as his friends got up from underneath Ed. Double D reaches into the fountain and grabs Ed's hat from the water, dries the wizard off and places the hat back on top of Ed's orange hair.

"Ed, what gives you the right to crash into us like that?" barked Eddy.

"Eddy, bad lady is coming to get my neck!" Ed stated worriedly. "You must hide me before the bad lady hits me with her Death spell!"

"Uh… what?" the other Eds questioned.

"He's talking about Lilienne," explained the wizard hat. "When we tried to walk into her store, she threatened us and I tried to apologize to her, but the boy is a walking disaster and really destroyed the store instead of knocking staff off of their racks."

"How bad is the damage?" asked Double D.

"About a good chunk of our Munny," Normadomus replied grimly.

"Sheesh Ed, what did you do to get that woman pissed at us in the first place?" asked Eddy.

"Let's not worry about Lilienne at the moment. She's going to hopefully calm down and then _I'll_ go see her and talk about getting a new staff for the boy. In the meantime, let's head to my home and let's see if we can't find anything about the Everlasting Void."

With that plan in mind, the Eds make their way towards Normadomus' home, all while avoiding the main section to prevent running into Lilienne. They are taking a path through the alleyways, with Double D saying that he does not want people to celebrate their latest victory. While walking down one alley, Double D notices Mark and Marie roaming around the alleyways, which is getting the smart Ed wondering about what the two are up to and why are they appear to be in a rush.

OOO

"Is this it?"

"No."

"Is this it?"

"No."

"Is this it?"

"No."

"Is this it?"

"No."

"Is this it?"

"_No_."

"Then what about this one?"

"Boy if you don't stop tossing my books onto the floor, I will use my magic to toss you out of this house."

"Sheesh, and all I was doing was trying to help," said Eddy, placing a book back on the shelf.

The Eds are back inside the house of Normadomus, all three of the boys searching around the multiple shelves to see which book hold what secrets. Double D and the wizard hat are quickly scanning through the many books while Eddy and Ed slowly take each book off of the shelves. Stacks of books quickly appear along the floor, with several being made in seconds, as the Eds and the wizard quickly breeze through the books in hope of finding the details concerning the Everlasting Void.

"I'm surprised you can find anything here," said the greedy Ed. "A whole lot of these things aren't even labeled."

"Most books that I own aren't titled because these are old books," said the hat. "The print is inside, since the lettering on the covers will wear out, meaning you got to open the books instead of showing me the cover."

"Perhaps you should be like Double D and start labeling these things so we would be done here."

"Well I don't exactly have a device or know a spell that can help me with that. I rather just pull a book from a shelf and read its contents without knowing what I am choosing."

"Sounds like you have a system going to learning everything you know," said the smart Ed. "Perhaps I should adopt that technique myself."

The Eds continue to work in silence for the moment, still looking through the books for answers. As the search continues to empty the shelves, Double D begins to rub his head as he reads the text from one book. The words on the pages begin to jump around and start forming new sentences, creating something out of context from the original writing, and the smart Ed can feel his brain pulsing. "Is there something wrong Double D?" asked Ed.

"There has been that one Awakening that is still leaving me wondering what its message was about," said Double D. "What exactly does the Keyblade, door, heart, final lock, evil and Jib have in common?"

"That has interested me when you mentioned it some time ago," said Ed's hat, looking over at one of his bookcases. "I remember that I own a book about Kingdom Hearts, but where did I put that book?"

The wizard hat tells Ed to move about the bookcases to see if the two can find the book the wizard is searching for. The hat notices one book that has the title he has in mind and uses the tip of his hat to nudge the book out and knock it to the ground. Once down on the ground, the hat jumps off of Ed's head and starts looking through the book to see where the passage is, mentioning the certain details Double D described, and the Eds gather around to see what the book holds.

"Here it is: '… _The Keyblade is the only key needed to open the door to the kingdom of Hearts. Six of the purest hearts will come together will open the path that will lead the way to this Kingdom, where the final lock will put anyone strong and brave enough to the test. But beware the evil that haunts the power that is the Keyblade: it will bring the Destroyer back from the grave and ruling over the universe, should the Keyblade fail to accomplish its task_.'"

Normadomus finishes the book by closing the cover shut, leaving the Eds slightly confused. "Isn't it that what Jib is?" asked Eddy. "He's called the Destroyer of Light, isn't he?"

"Yes, but from the book that I've just read, this Destroyer is an entirely different being and it mentions that it will return should we fail to accomplish what the Keyblade's task is," said the hat, "whatever that task may be."

"That sounds very disturbing," said Double D nervously. "If this Destroyer happens to be the very being lurking in that tree Zip-fly was talking about, we could be in grave danger if Jib were to get his hands on Kingdom Hearts!"

"Not to mention that even if we beat the Destroyer of Light, there is that matter of completing the task of your Keyblade," said the wizard. "We don't know what that task is, rather not it be defeating the Destroyer of Light or sealing the door to Kingdom Hearts, or something entirely different! If it is the latter, there is that off chance the Destroyer mentioned in the book will come back and fulfill its destiny!"

"Then we need to screw that destiny up and stop this Destroyer before he takes over all of what we have done here!" stated Eddy, excitement burning in his eyes.

"Eddy, our top priority is stopping Jib from getting to Kingdom Hearts and gaining its power," said Double D. "If this task calls for us to go into the darkness and stop Jib's plans, then we've completed that task of stopping this new Destroyer. But then, it could be that we need to seal the final lock that the book mentioned, which could prevent people from getting beyond the door, but is this true? How is this possible when no one has ever done this before?"

"Hey, these books here are created by philosophers with dreams and stories that will hopefully be fact," said Normadomus. "I, myself, am one of those people and I am on a mission to see that my fellow brothers are right for a change."

"So it's going to be possible to find Kingdom Hearts through this Everlasting Void?" asked Eddy, sounding skeptical.

"We'll just see about that. So far from what I know, those who venture into the Void never came out, probably because they wound up turning into Heartless and Nobodies, or they could have gotten all of the way to the bottom but were corrupted by power and were erased from history. It is uncertain if these accusations are true, but we'll see when we get there."

"So there's that off chance we won't survive this?" asked Double D, now feeling ill. "And another thing, where is this supposed Void when no one has ever came out of it to record its location?"

"According to this one book I have here," said Ed's hat, with the Ed taking a book off a shelf and opening it, "one team surveyed the area containing the Void and found it on the very outskirts of this particular region of the universe. It's thanks to this team that people like me can know the location of the Void, but from this passage: '_the Void has been sealed with some kind of spell preventing anyone foolish enough to dive into its center and search for Kingdom Hearts. It appears the seal was made by six pure hearts, perhaps done by the Pure Hearted, and from what we can gather only those six hearts can undo the seal locking the entrance to the Void_.'"

"That explains why the Pure Hearted are here," said Double D. "So all we need to do is ask them to break this seal and open a way down into that black hole. So what are the odds of us finding this Void to really be a black hole and get pulled in to another part of the universe?"

"Well if this turns out well, the Void should be like any other world and we may have a chance of escaping," said the hat. "The question is how do we get out and will get out if we get deep into the Void?"

"Hey, if we find our world down there," said Eddy, "we could tote that thing out of the Void using our ship and then we can get everyone out of here and back in their homes in no time!"

"Oh now you're really stretching things," the smart Ed retorted.

"That sounds like something I would come up with," said Ed sadly.

"Hey, it's not like everything is going to snap back to normal when this journey comes to an end," the small Ed pointed out. "That got me thinking, is there anything in that book saying that Kingdom Hearts granting wishes?"

"I doubt that," Normadomus replied. "Since no one has ever visited the place, it doesn't appear the Kingdom will grant wishes. Even if it did, our main wish is to get out of the Void. And to answer the other boy's question: there's always a rope system we can try."

"Well that's going to be easy to do," said the medium Ed, very skeptical about the rope system.

"Anyway, now that we have our information, it's time that we visit TOM and the others and ask if they can get the Gummi ship fix up to travel into deep space," said the wizard hat.

"That won't be necessary."

The boys stop in their tracks when they notice Mark is standing inside of the doorway, leaving the door going outside open and his hands in his pockets. "Sorry for barging in like that, but I've overheard about going to the robot's place," the teen said, taking a hand and rubbing his neck. "I talked to them about fixing your ship up and they're already working on that."

"Well that's nice of you," said Double D. "And why did you ask them to do that when we should?"

"Consider it to be one of the many things to come in hopes of winning back your trust," Mark replied. "I know I got my work cut out and I know some small things aren't going to win you guys over any time soon, but hey even the smallest things count right?"

"Unless they're coming from you," Eddy grumbled darkly.

"Hey, I'm doing what I'm doing not just for you, even if you have to hate everything I do," the teen protested. "Anyway, the main reason I'm here is to talk to Double D. The others need to see the robots because they want to talk to you."

The Ed boys look at each other, wondering what TOM wants with only Eddy and Ed. With some slight arguing, the two Eds break away from the medium Ed as Double D joins Mark and head down one alleyway. As the two boys watch Eddy and Ed head off, Mark grabs onto the smart Ed's shoulder and drags him deeper into the alley, out of sight and hearing range as Mark settles the Ed down.

"You know that was completely unnecessary," said Double D, rubbing his shoulder.

"I know, but after hearing the word around town, they seem rather chatty about you and I really don't want anyone involve in our little talk."

"And speaking of, where's Marie?"

"I've sent her to go grab some ice-cream. I hear that they have some sea salt ice-cream and I always wonder what that tastes like."

"I've never tried the stuff before so I can't help you there. I'm guessing Marie is getting three for us?"

"You got that right. Anyway, the reason I want to talk to you is that I know you have questions you want to ask, so I'm giving you the opportunity to speak."

"All right, but you have to answer them honestly," said Double D. "Why exactly are you talking to just me and not someone else?"

"Because you're one of the only few people I can trust, with you, Ed and Marie being the others. I told the others about all that has happened during the months and they didn't take the news lightly. I got the boot as soon I was finished and now I feel rejected so I had to go to you for some help."

"Can I really trust you after all of what you have done? You said that you were the one that got Father to come to our home and destroy Peach Creek with the Heartless!"

"Yes you should! I know I mention that I learned of Father's plan, but I have a good reason for attracting Prankster, Zip-fly and Blitzer to Peach Creek and that's because of your Keyblade!"

"Then can you explain why I have this Keyblade in the first place? I talked to one of the Pure Hearted and he made me question why I am wielding the Keyblade in the first place. Is it because of my heart, my bond with my friends or is it something else? Then again, why do you have a Keyblade when you have done some rotten things?"

"That I am trying to figure myself out," said Mark, scratching his head as he summons his Keyblade. "I was wondering how I earned this thing when I was on the verge of freeing Marie, and then that Awakening happened and my mind went blank after that."

"So you knew how to get Marie free from her prison! Why didn't you do that before we gotten into the room and fought me to the death?"

"Like I said, my mind blank and I forgot the code at that moment. As soon I came back to reality, I hear you guys getting near and my Mask persona was taking over. As I was fighting you, I tried my best at remembering the code, but my mind was racing on other things and I couldn't focus on getting that code."

"So if I were to have finished you off like Eddy wanted me too when you just remembered the code…"

"Marie would have been stuck in that chamber until you pry the door open."

"… I guess I made the right decision on letting you live," said Double D, now feeling depressed. "I'm amazed that all this time, Eddy still doesn't see that you were working for us and you didn't suspect Jib to be watching us and took the opportunity to get through the portal."

"Oh yeah, I didn't suspect to see that shadow man to appear out of Ed's hat," said Mark, before realizing what Double D is saying. "… Who's Jib? Was that the man who calls himself the Destroyer of Light?"

"Did you hear something from Eddy or Ed about Jib's name? If I can remember, although my mind is a bit cloudy on that, they have said his name at least once from the both of them."

"I did, but I don't know who Jib is. I thought it was some weird name for the Destroyer of Light that someone like Eddy and Ed made up."

"Of course. You weren't around the time when Jib came to town, where he was trying his best at beating Eddy up and possibly looking for the keys."

"Yeah, and that's was when my father was working on the radio, snarking at everything he can get his hands on, and my mother was owning a small shop selling her and my designs."

"Mark, I need to know why you weren't there to help us out during our fight with Zip-fly. We could have used your new Keyblade and your swordsmanship against Zip-fly's uncanny speed."

"At first I didn't realize you guys were fighting Zip-fly," explained the teen. "I was getting Marie onto my ship and we were having a discussion about certain things, along with me trying to propose to her, when I noticed an explosion outside and pieced together you were probably fighting out there."

"That was probably around the time I used my Light spell on Zip-fly and we almost brought him to his… you proposed to Marie!"

"Yeah, but not in the sense you think it'll be. I was hoping that when Marie is old enough, I will ask her hand in marriage and we can get marry in a few years, having a simple wedding with our closest friends watching and hopefully show everyone we can make a good couple.

"I can see where you are going at, but isn't that a tad extreme considering how young she is? She's like three years younger than you and you want to get married to her?"

"Well once she is eighteen, that is. I know we're going to be marrying at such a young age, but then my parents were kinda the same way like we are now. It strange… it kinda feels like I am walking in my father's shoes right now."

"What are you saying? Is it because you look like your father?"

"Not just that… you know that if you want to get to know someone, you got to walk a mile in their shoes. Well lately I begin to feel like I'm walking light-years, possibly literally, in my father's footsteps once I met Marie… and strangely enough Marie is turning into my mother."

"That's… very disturbing."

"I know, but hear me out. Now I really haven't noticed anything when I first tried to ask Marie out on dates, but the more we got closer together, the more I realized I'm turning into my father. Not only that but Marie is starting to warm up like my mother when she started dated my Father and really it feels like I am repeating events that happened in my family's past."

"With what, you being a shy-with-the-girls boy, with unnatural sword abilities, going for a rebel like Marie that's somehow turning into your parents?" questioned Double D. "How's that even possible when this could be entirely coincidental that you are following the same path as your parents?"

"Well one my mother made me sign up for sword classes when I was young," said Mark. "It was something to keep me from being picked on during middle school. But I don't believe I'm not following my parents' footsteps as coincidental. I actually researched my family tree and learned quite a bit about my father's side to notice a pattern here. It was possibly destiny that put me on the path with Marie and the two of us dating."

"But what's with the proposal again?"

"… Well, I actually proposed to her being my girlfriend until I ask for her hand in marriage. It sounds stupid, but then we actually worked out a deal where she can see you since she does have feelings for you."

"Really? That's something all right," Double D replied, unsure on what to say. "You sure you don't mind if she, like, dates me for some other reasons?"

"I don't mind. I know she said it is her decision on who she will choose in the end, so if she wants to be with you… I'm perfectly fine with that."

"You don't sound that certain on that."

"I am. I know I don't sound like it, but you can ask Marie if you want."

"So… have you told the other Kanker sisters about you and Marie's relationship?"

Silence strikes the teen as his eyes roll away from the Ed and the two of them stand in the alleyway in the quiet. It is clear that Mark told Lee and May about their relationship, and the teen does not want to bring up the events after announcing the news. As they were going to resume, along comes Marie carrying three clear popsicles in her hand. The two boys let out a sigh as soon the blue-haired girl approach the three and hands the two one ice-cream a piece. Double D notices some bite marks on Marie's ice-cream and he notices Mark biting down on his, so this is prompting the Ed to try what this ice-cream is all about.

"So when I was walking around town, I heard quite a lot of neat things about you Double D," the blue-haired girl said, swallowing the ice-cream that is in her mouth. "Sounds like you have done a whole lot to deserve yourself the title of a hero. So when Mark asked me to get ourselves some ice-cream, I figured to get you one since he was going to get you."

"Uh, really this is thoughtful, but I can't really say that I deserve…" started the smart Ed as he takes a bite of the ice-cream and tasting the flavor of the ice-cream. "This sea salt ice-cream is rather unusual… yet so satisfying to the taste buds."

"I can see why people like this stuff," said Mark, taking a bite and chewing on the piece. "It's really interesting to have a sweet and salty taste for ice-cream and yet be good at the same time."

"And the good thing is that I got this for free when I mentioned I was the boyfriend of Double D," said Marie. "It may be a lie, but hey even that shrimp would be taking up a deal like that."

"I'm pretty sure Eddy will take several Jawbreakers for free if he mentioned my name," said Double D. "Why don't we head into town and meet up with the others?"

"Uh, you do realize that I can't join you if we head over to head over to the robot's house," added Mark. "I was kicked out from the others, remember?"

"And I was kicked away from my sisters after I was the one who mentioned me an Mark are dating," started Marie, "but I was let back in after I told them…" She got up in Double D's ears and whispers something private to the Ed, causing him to tense up and look over to Mark, who is giving the Ed a sheepish smile.

"OK, that's something that I shouldn't know in the first place," the Ed replied, a little disgusted.

"I was figuring whether or not to tell you that, but that's one reason why I chose Mark to date over you."

With a shudder going down his spine, Double D head out of the alleyway with Mark and Marie following right behind. With the three of them eating what remains on the popsicle sticks, the two lovers check their stinks to find a blank wooden stick so they toss them into a nearby trash. Double D takes his final bite and notices that his stick has writing on it, saying "Winner" and bearing a crown on it. Sticking the wet stick into a pocket, the three children split off as Double D heads towards TOM while Mark and Marie continue to explore the town.

OOO

"OK, so with this new ship of ours, we can reach the Everlasting Void and have enough thrust to get out of the Void?"

"Well I'm not one hundred percent on that this will get you out of the Void," explained Dexter, "but I can assure you that the _Midnight Hummer EX_ should get you to the Void while by-passing the other worlds."

"So are we also getting better weapons on this model?" asked Eddy.

"From what I got on the blueprints, the Firaga and Gravtiga cannons are enough to handle any Heartless you will encounter within the wormhole to this Void," said TOM. "I had experience going through those portals to get from one section to another, and I have dealt with plenty of Heartless Gummi ships while on the _Absolution_."

The small Ed is greedily rubbing his hands as the two Eds are in the lab of the young boy genius Dexter, checking out the progress of their ship upgrades. They can see that their ship is looking slightly different from the original model, appearing darker and bearing a pattern on the edges while there is a protective barrier wrapping around the edges. There are two sets of wings instead of one set, with the new set smaller than the original, and the thrusters appear to be bigger. Along with new turrets on the wings and on top of the ship, the cockpit appears to be a different shape and closer to the nose of the ship. Eddy loves the new designs as Ed is staring deeply at the new ship.

"So how long is this going to take?" asked Ed's hat.

"In about… now," replied Dexter, looking at a stopwatch. "I have programmed a robot to have the remodeling done and now the final touches are complete. You Ed boys are now ready to tackle every aspect of the universe now."

"Think of it Ed, we may be on the verge of discovering a whole new world and we might come back alive to tell the tale," explained Eddy, wrapping an arm around his tall friend's neck. "If we make it out alive from this Void, we'll be bigger heroes than we are now, for not only conquering the Everlasting Void but beating the Destroyer of Light!"

"But I don't want to kill Jib," Ed replied sadly.

"Oh come on Ed, Jib used Double D to get where he is now and beaten us with no effort whatsoever," the small Ed explained. "You need to get over the fact that Jib is not your imaginary friend but our enemy! Once that is set, we need to find a way to beat him and get out of there… and maybe find this Kingdom Hearts as well."

"Well considering you are embarking on one of the most insane expeditions," said TOM, "it's best that we need to get Lilienne on board and get you boys some new clothing that will help you against the Heartless."

"Whoa, I'm not taking anything from that psycho woman," barked Eddy. "If there's one thing that I know, it's how to avoid women like her and I know how to get away from women like her. We had to deal with three of them and we hardly make it through the day alive if they would just stop kissing us to death!"

There is a strong, firm cough coming from right behind and the Eds tense up as the two boys pivot around to find the said women standing right in the doorway. Along with an angry Lee, May and Lilienne is the medium Ed, who is not pleased upon hearing Eddy talking bad about the women. "So, from what you're saying is that we aren't good enough for the two of you?" asked Lee.

"Yeah, considering how horribly you treated us," stated Eddy.

"Well at least Double D here is a true gentleman and knows how to treat a lady right," said May, sensually brushing up against the Ed.

"You two aren't even close to ladies!" stated the small Ed.

"Why I outta…" said Lee before being stopped by Lilienne. "No. If there is one female that should teach this boy a lesson that will be me. Plus I need to dispose of the other one for ruining my business," said the Mage.

The female Mage takes her staff that she is carrying and prepares it for a magic spell, causing Eddy and Ed to freak out. "Whoa, hold on there Mrs. Ombrus!" stated Normadomus. "Can we please settle this dispute without any violence?" A sudden burst of electricity rips out from the tip of the staff and zaps the tall Ed, blackening him. "… I'll take that as a no."

Eddy takes his new shield by the cauldron's handle and prepares it to strike as Lilienne leaps into the room and sends a stream of Fire down on the Eds. Ed dodges the fire as Eddy blocks with his shield, and he chunks the shield up as the Mage casts a basic Reflect to knock the shield back down at the small Ed hard. Ed takes Dracula's Scepter and uses Shadara on Lilienne, but the attack phases right through her as she takes her staff and knocks the Darkness staff out of Ed's hands.

Now armed with only his wizard hat, Ed dodges icicles from Lilienne's staff as Eddy removes Heavy Potluck off of him and prepares it to throw again. Just as the shield is flying through the air, Lilienne dodges just as the shield passes her clothes and hits Ed right in the gut. TOM reaches for his gun on him and aims it at Lilienne, but the robot begins to freeze up, thanks to the Mage's Blizzard spell. Eddy takes one good swing at Lilienne but she dodges the attack again and uses Gravity to pin the Ed down. Once she got herself into position to perform the finishing blow, Normadomus throws his mouth open and covers Lilienne in a protective barrier to protect Eddy from her attack.

"Yeah, I have gotten myself a Reflectaja ready in case of encountering a little demon such as yourself," said the wizard, confident enough that he mentioned a suffix he should not be mentioning to Ed. "That is strong enough to prevent even your –ra attacks from getting out."

"Free me from this prison this instance," threatened Lilienne, "or I will use my strongest magic spell to turn this world into a wasteland!"

"Not until I have a personal discussion with you, alone without interference from my chauffer or anyone else," said the hat.

Lilienne lets out one long growl as she stares out into space right at the two Ed boys. Once she settles down, Normadomus cancels the spell and he asks Ed to hand him over to the Mage. Now in her grasps, Lilienne takes the hat out into the main room and closes the door on the others cannot hear their conversation. Double D presses an ear against the door to try to get the faintest of sounds, but he turns to the others and shakes his head to their disappointment. After waiting a few minutes, the door swings open and the two spellcasters stroll back into the lab.

"Well, I finally settled the little dispute with Lilienne and my chauffer, but that's going to cost me some time working at her shop," said the hat. "Plus I got her to get a new staff and do the clothing spell, but you don't want to know what I agree to that."

"Trust me, I heard something worse today," said Double D with some sickness.

"I was hoping that I can give this staff to probably Giovanni or someone that has a better sense of magic," said Lilienne, "but instead I am giving it to an imbecile that still needs to learn some more tricks."

The Mage tosses the staff over to Ed and he catches it while tossing his old staff over to Lilienne. The staff is rather heavy but the boy appears to have no trouble wielding the weapon. The design makes it look like a pedestal covered in vines and worn out throughout the ages. On top of the staff is an open book with realistic pages containing a listing of several spells, but the size of the text is too small for the boy to read. At the butt of the staff appears to be the base for the pedestal, sort of acting like a counterweight to the staff, and at the very bottom bears the name "Hero's Enchiridion" etched into the stone.

With Ed swinging his staff around, Double D has a small smile on his face as the small Ed gives Lilienne a stingy look. "All right, now I have to give you three some improvements to your looks," said the Mage.

"But I like these clothes," said Eddy, checking out his shirt.

"Trust me on this, you won't even notice a difference," said the Mage.

Her fingertips begin to glow and with a snap of her fingers, the Eds are encase in three balls of light before spinning around in a circle and became dizzy from the sudden transformation. The Ed boys look down at each other to notice that their clothes appear slightly different, with Eddy and Ed having more rustic clothing and Double D seeing his pants and jacket are a bit longer. The boys can feel that the material is a bit thicker than their previous clothes, but they do not feel being weighted down by their clothing.

Eddy checks his hat and notices that he obtained a new pair of goggles and he notices that they are missing the lenses. Taking out the pair of lenses he got back in Stormalong Harbor, the Ed places the lenses into their frames and places the goggles on his face to see through his new goggles. "You know, I need to try these more often," he mentioned.

"So why are we getting new clothes now?" asked the smart Ed. "It's not like we're going to be gone for a long time."

"Those clothes should help you three negate very weak attack and put up with stronger attacks, provided they are not like fatal moves or spells that has a Death effect on them," said Lilienne, warning the Eds about their new clothes.

"All right, so we got ourselves new weapons, a new ship and some new threads," said the greedy Ed excitedly. "It's time that we get out of here and head for the Everlasting Void!"

"Whoa, we still need to get the Pure Hearted to perform the spell that will unlock the seal and allow us to travel into the Void," Ed's hat pointed out.

"Oh come on, we've been here long enough," Eddy complained. "I want to put an end to all of this as fast as we can, and I really want to get back at Jib for ruining that perfectly good scam."

"You're leaving already?" cooed Lee, getting up right on Eddy's back. "You three just got here and now you want to leave us alone again?"

"Hey, we are going to get our homes back," the greedy replied, slipping away from the redhead. "We're trying to get all of you back on our world, just as we talk to the Pure Hearted and they unlock this seal."

"Why rush everything Eddy?" said Lee, grabbing onto the Ed's collar. "We got time to wait…"

"Yeah Ed, why don't you and Eddy just relax for a bit while those Pure Hearted people do whatever they need to do," said May sensually.

"No! No love for Ed!" stated Ed, getting away from the blonde Kanker.

Double D lets out a long sigh as he shifts his attention over to Dexter, all while watching his friends avoid the Kanker sisters. "So… do you think we have a chance of getting out of the Void and setting everything right?" he asked.

"Well since no one has escaped the Void alive," said the boy genius, "your odds of escaping are very slim, but who knows what is going to happen."

"Then again, you three haven't found the kings yet," added TOM. "Are you sure you want to go into the Void knowing that the kings could be out there in the universe?"

"Somehow… I got a feeling that we will meet the kings eventually," answered the smart Ed. "From our journey, we learned that the kings have been following us, so maybe they might be lending their strength when we go face off against the Destroyer of Light."

"Well, if you and your friends come out of this alive, you'll be bigger heroes than I am or even Normadomus," said the blue robot. "Of course the key thing is surviving."

The medium gives a firm nod as the door to the lab is thrown open and the other children of the cul-de-sac came pouring in. "Double D, Eddy, Ed!" stated Kevin, sounding out of breath. "We hear that you guys are leaving for good."

"What… where did you get that?" asked Eddy, dodging Lee and watching her crash into her sister.

"We have been hearing that you Ed boys are going to be heading into a dark everlasting pit where no light shines and everyone that enters never come back out alive," explained Rolf.

"We really want to say goodbye to all of you, knowing that you are doing this for all of us," said Nazz. "At least… that's what we think."

"Of… Of course Nazz," replied Double D. "We are heading into the Everlasting Void to hopefully stop Jib and put everything back into place."

"Well I wish you luck dudes," said the blonde.

"Same here," said Jonny. "And again, I'm really sorry for beating you guys back at that crazy world."

"You guys have become heroes not only to us but to the whole universe!" stated Jimmy. "If you guys come back alive, I will have someone that I can look up to everyday."

"Yeah and if you don't come back alive, I'm telling Mom that you died in front of your imaginary friend's hands!" growled Sarah, who is surprisingly looking worry for the Eds.

"No Sarah, please don't tell Mom!" Ed pleaded. "I will come back and I will kick Jib's butt before he touches Kingdom Hearts!"

"If you Ed boys were to come back, Rolf will prepare a feast for the tastes, using all of my great nano's recipes and make the freshest foods you will ever taste before!" proclaimed the foreign boy.

"… Or how about I give you guys a whole week's worth of Jawbreakers?" offered Kevin.

"Hey, can I say something?" asked the voice of Mark.

Everyone in the room turn around to find the teen Mark and Marie standing in the doorway to the lab, and the other children slowly back away from the teen. "You know you got to stop doing that," Eddy pointed out.

"Yeah, but this is what happens when you leave the front door open," replied Mark.

"What are you doing here?" growled Kevin. "You have a lot of nerve walking into this place."

"Hey, it wasn't his decision to come here!" barked Marie. "We're only here to talk to Double D and the others to give them some encouraging words."

The other children groan and break up to allow the two to walk into the room and reach the Ed boys. There are some uncomfortable stares coming from the others, but Mark and Marie ignore the stares as they focus on the Eds. "So… is there anything you want to say?" asked Eddy.

"Well I got something to tell Double D, it's something that I forgot to say during our little talk," said Mark. "You said something about why did the Keyblade chose you, right? Well… I know I'm not an expert, but I believe the answer lies within you. It may not be your heart or your mind that allows you to be a Keyblader, but perhaps your friendship with so many great people and probably the bravery that you showed in the past. Granted I don't know how I got mine, but I think we share the same bond."

"That's good to hear," said the smart Ed.

"And I got something say to you too," added Marie. "Double D, I really want to thank you for all of what you done for me. Even though you were frighten of me, you stepped up and actually gave me the chance… and I really like that. You taught me everything that I need to know and again I can't thank you for all that you did for me. All I ask is that you are safe on your final journey and go kick this Jib's butt!"

"Yeah, go show this Jib fellow not to mess with anyone in the cul-de-sac!" stated Lee.

"You can do it Ed boys!" cried May.

Everyone in the room lets out one long cheer as the Eds tilt their heads around to get one good look at their friends. The blue-haired girl reaches up and pecks Double D on the cheek, prompting him to put a hand on where the kiss landed as the girl flashes a friendly smile at the Ed boy. As the children are celebrating, a camera begins to operate by itself and projects the image of SARA down into the room, projecting down into a opened spot.

"**I'm sorry to be interrupting, but the Pure Hearted are done with their preparations and have successfully unlocked the seal**," said the hologram. "**The black hole known as the Everlasting Void has revealed itself and is now ready for people to venture into**."

"Thank you for the update," replied TOM. "Do you boys hear that? You are now clear to head into the Everlasting Void."

"All right people, we are about to do the impossible, see the invisible, touch the untouchable and break the unbreakable!" stated Eddy. "Let's get this show on the road and out to the Everlasting Void!"

"Row, row, fight the power!" stated Ed randomly.

With one final cheer, the children gently nudge the Eds out of the room and the house as the boys prepare themselves to walk to the entrance. As they leave, they can hear people cheering them on, and the Eds give friendly waves to the people. Giovanni and Newt exit their stores and give the boys a salute, getting the Eds to salute back as they approach the doors of Traverse Town. Stopping for the final time, the Eds walk through the doors and approach their new Gummi ship, getting the hatch door open and they begin to file themselves inside.

"Hey mon, I got some news for ya," came from the voice of the Grim Reaper, causing the Eds to stop and turn around to find the cloaked skeleton right at their ship. "You boys remember about when you two are going to die from natural causes?"

"Yes, I remember that," replied Double D. "Why, is there something wrong?"

"Well, it only involves you but there appears to be some change to your future," said the reaper. "It appears that somehow the demon that has been sealed away has somehow begun his plans to take over the universe and is now changing your future as well!"

"So what will my new death be?" asked Ed excitedly.

"Oh, I can't be spoiling that for ya. It's probably best that you learn your fates in a few years."

"A few years?" echoed the smart Ed. "Uh, excuse me Death, but by chance were you the one that sealed this evil in that tree?"

The Grim Reaper puts a bony finger up against his lower jaw and starts to think about what Double D just said. "I don't remember sealing anyone in no tree. If you have heard about the Grim Reaper that sealed some mythical being in a black tree, then he's the man you should be seeing, mon," said the reaper. "I'm just doing my job as the Grim Reaper."

"Wait… there's _two_ Grim Reapers?" questioned all three Eds at once.

"Don't try to think about it too hard," the reaper replied, turning away from the Eds.

Now knowing about the little fact that there are two Grim Reapers roaming the universe, the Ed boys board the Gummi ship to find themselves sitting in a familiar, yet new setting. The Eds got themselves down in their seats as Double D places himself at the new controls. Now checking to find a map on the dashboard, prompting Eddy to let out an irritated growl, the smart Ed got the ship running and off of the ground as the Midnight Hummer EX begins to fly out of Traverse Town and straight into a wormhole leading the way to their final world.

As the Gummi ship flies towards the wormhole...

"You did _**WHAT?**_" shouted Eddy.

* * *

OK so I lied about Double D getting a new Keyblade, but I got that planned out. Wait, I said by the end of this story…

However I did get the other Eds their new weapons, even though Eddy's is the most expensive out of the weapons (it's a lot) and Ed's wasn't easy to get. But I gave the Eds some new clothes that will help them survive and I gave them all that they need for the journey ahead. Yeah, either they are going to be thanking me or possibly planning my murder, it's going to be a fun ride for all of us as I still have one more charm up my sleeve and also an epic boss battle to come. And I have one more surprise when we get deep into the Void as well.

So this here was just to get everything set into motion for the events to come. I also got the chance for Mark to explain a little bit about what I want to say for this story, especially considering my pairing with him and Marie. There's also that little tidbit that Marie mentioned, which was also from my original sequel, so I got the chance to say that. And also I'm provoking my philosophy about there being multiple grim reapers roaming the world (or in this case universe) collecting the fallen souls and lead them into the Afterlife. Yeah I like the idea and it's really something to think about: how could one Reaper deal with thousands, possibly millions, of souls in one day?

I want to quote something: "Does it have a sweet or salty taste?"

So once again I like for you all to review, thank you very much. Coming up we will spend the rest of the act, story and month in the Everlasting Void and hopefully the Eds don't get themselves into too much trouble when they arrive.


	25. Act IV, Ch 25: Everlasting Void, part 1

Well, this is it. Here we are at the beginning of the End of the World, where we are going to push the Eds to the limit by having them dive into the darkness and hopefully catch up to Jib to stop him from getting at Kingdom Hearts. This is the moment that I, and we, have been waiting for. Now this is my opportunity to really shine and bring this very special _Kingdom Hearts_/_Ed, Edd n Eddy_ crossover to a close!

… Wait, did I say End of the World? I meant Everlasting Void.

Anyway, if you play the games, you should know what I am going to do here. This is just the first part so this will be the first half of the world… even though I am going to be going at this in a totally different way. So you are going to be noticing something entirely different here, and I hope you like these little changes. And I sure hope the Eds are going to be all right…

Anyway, let's begin!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Five – Dive into the Darkness

OOO

"How could you Double D? How could you have go date one of the Kanker sisters and kept this hidden from us!" roared Eddy.

The _Midnight Hummer EX_ is now flying through the wormhole that is taking them directly to their last world: the Everlasting Void. As of now, the new Gummi ship is doing very well and is holding up, as the ship is on autopilot as the pilot is in a debate with the small Ed. Ed is watching from the sidelines, watching his two friends get into an argument about Double D's past, and he is looking on worriedly for a potential fight to break out between the two boys.

"I thought we have something going for us and that we are supposed to stay far away from those girls as possible," the greedy Ed continued, "but somehow you had to go and date one of those girls!"

"Eddy, will you just relax?" Double D calmly replied. "It's not what you think it was. I was just trying to help one of the sisters out in learning to be a better person."

"Oh really? How in the world can you train one of those girls in making them a better person?" Eddy stated. "Don't you remember that they treat us like throw-away toys!"

"Why are you calling them like they're animals? They're just like us Eddy… but only a little tougher to teach some etiquette than say you."

"And why would you teach some eddy… whatever to someone like the Kankers? They don't need something like that in the first place and are better off without one of us interfering!"

"Oh come now Eddy, would you rather have the Kanker sisters mercilessly holding us against our will," Double D protested, "or would you want to have three well-behaved sisters who knows the rules of society and are willing to ask out on dates without killing us?"

"I don't want any of those things! You shouldn't be with any of those sisters and I don't want to be in part of anything you have plans with those girls!"

"Well excuse me for allowing me to see whoever I want Eddy. I'm my own person Eddy and I'm not restrained from you giving me orders every single time! Plus I promised that I'll help Marie out and I was just doing that!"

"Guys…"

"Stay out of this Ed!" both Eddy and Double D snapped at once, causing Ed to shrivel up in fear.

"I don't care if you promised her or swear to her, you still hang out with that girl…"

"She is a human being Eddy! Why can't you see that I'm trying to say to you? It's it not obvious to you when I was gone during those summer days when I was trying to teach Marie all that I know in order to get her on the right path instead of going down the same road as her sister?"

"Guys…"

"All right, that's enough you two!" roared Ed's hat, causing the two Eds to stop and focus on the wizard hat. "You two are acting like two angry little kids and clearly you two aren't like that. Now I may not know much about these girls you are talking about, but will it kill the two of you to realize that none of that is important now? You got your lives ahead of you and yet you're complaining about the past? So what about the past! You two need to focus on the present and the future because that's what really matter right now.

"You two may have different opinions about what happened back then, but we're not on your world nor are those girls here. You two need to get back together and forget all of what happened in the past. We are part of a team and I don't want to go walking in with the two of you bickering about something so inept and also I don' want to end up being shredded by the Heartless."

The two fighting Eds look each other in the eyes and they begin to realize what Normadomus is talking about. They are fighting over something they should not be worrying about at this moment, and if they continue on they will not a chance against what is to come for them. Reconsidering their options, Eddy offers his hand in truce and Double D accepted his offering. The two Eds then return to their positions, getting themselves comfortable, as their ship exits the wormhole and enters the vastness of space.

The Eds soon hear the sound of a slow beep of a world approaching and the boys look out of the window to notice a disturbing sight. Before them is a very massive mass of black energy barely visible to their sight, and all of that mass is spiraling towards a large opening in space, and crawling out from the mass is dark lightning. The boys let out three heavy gulps as they slowly inch closer to what appears to be a growing mass that is stealing the surrounding lights, and possibly others, around them.

"So… this is the Everlasting Void," muttered Double D breathlessly.

"Indeed boys," answered Normadomus. "Though what you see before you appears to be a black hole, what lies behind there is a world that's far different from what we have encountered on this journey. We need to be on our guard once we step out, and pray to our creator that we survive entering this void."

"Let's hope that brainiac knows what we are getting ourselves into," said Eddy.

"We must dive into the darkness!" stated Ed, getting himself excited for the journey ahead.

"Yes Ed," replied Double D, gripping onto the controls as he steers the _Midnight Hummer EX _into the opening of the Void.

OOO

The stormy atmosphere that is the entrance to the Everlasting Void violently flails on the _Midnight Hummer EX_, rocking the Eds all about as they head deeper into the black hole. With the dark lightning, strong gravitational forces and extreme turbulence, the Gummi ship struggles to keep up with the damage as Double D maneuvers through the opening. The sirens are going off and reports of damages are coming up all over the Gummi ship, but the medium Ed shrugs all of that off as he spies a clearing and pushes down on the thruster.

Once breaking free from the stormy opening, the _Midnight Hummer EX_ finds itself flying into a very calm interior. The Eds peer out through the windshield to find a majestic, if not grim, landscape bare of any life but yet has light inside of this black hole. There are also appears to be some floating islands and rocks, but nothing that will help Double D land their ship. There is also a giant sphere of glowing light farther up the way and the boys take off for that, but warnings went off about an approaching mountain and Double D turns the ship around to prevent crashing into an invisible mountain.

After deciding on where to land, Double D carefully prepares the Gummi ship and starts to lower down towards a tiny bit of land. With landing gears strangely leveling out on the bit of land and the unknown space, the Eds look out to find that they are somehow standing on some invisible soil. This is true since there is wreckage of Gummi ships lying very close to the entrance and also a few ships intact as well. The boys give a moment of silence to those fallen by the darkness of the Void and they head towards the bay hatch to get out into the world.

Once the door is open, the three are nervous to venture out into the Void due to that there is no visible ground to walk on. Though their ship is standing on thin air, the Eds are not certain if they are going to fall and get lost in the Void. Eddy offers to use Ed as the guinea pig, getting behind the tall boy and pushing him off, but Ed sidesteps and watches Eddy head for the empty space. The small Ed then latches onto Double D's jacket, quickly catching himself as Double D begins to slip towards the edge and latching onto Ed's jacket. All three Eds are hanging on by a thread, which is prompting Ed's hat to jump off of his chauffer's head and land on the invisible ground to prove the theory to the Eds.

As soon the brim touch the ground, a Shadow appears from underneath the Gummi ship and starts to investigate the hat. Upon noticing the small Heartless heading towards the wizard, the Eds notice that there are several pureblood Heartless appearing out of nowhere. Gone are the Heartless bearing their emblems on their bodies, as only the black masses of Shadows, Darkballs and Neoshadows loom across the ground and each one of them are waiting for the moment to get at the Ed boys.

Quickly grabbing his hat, Ed and his friends finally venture out onto the invisible ground to challenge the Heartless. The pureblood Heartless charge right at the Eds by diving down into the shadows and slither across the ground, while the Darkballs quickly zip through the air to get at the boys. With weapons out, the three Eds got to work dealing with the smaller Shadows while dodging the Neoshadows and Darkballs until the three got an opening to deliver the final blows. As the trio is fighting, the surrounding begins to flicker with parts of the ground revealing itself and giant boulders and mountains appear as the Eds clear the Heartless.

"What exactly is going on?" asked Eddy.

"It's the Void," answered Ed's hat. "All of this time, the Everlasting Void proves itself to be a challenge to all of those who enter this place, but what from what I'm seeing, it appears the Void is testing us. The Void wants to see how strong we are and if we are worthy enough to have the path leading deeper into the Void."

"So in order for us to get any further, we need to beat wave after wave of Heartless until we get a fully developed path?" asked Double D. "That does sound like a logical explanation considering if this place has connections to Kingdom Hearts."

"It may be, but just fighting Heartless isn't going to be enough to get a clear path. We do need to defeat gatekeepers and possibly stronger Heartless like the Behemoth or possibly Darkside, should we run into one of those."

"And how exactly are we going to take on a Darkside?" asked Eddy. "The last time we fought one of those things was with a freaking robot! And we didn't exactly have a plan we first encountered one of those things back on our world and this was before we got these things!"

"I said it's possible we'll encounter one," said the hat, "but it doesn't mean we need to fight it unless the Darkside is a gatekeeper."

"OK, so defeating these gatekeepers will not only help us clear our path of potentially dangerous Heartless, but will create the path that will help us lead deeper into the Void," said Double D, wondering things over. "I guess if this is going to test us, we better give everything that we got and start forming our path by defeating these Heartless."

The other Eds nod in response as they look towards an entrance that the boy made through the defeated Heartless. When they got to the opening, they notice that the path is unclear, meaning they have a long way to go if they want to take the right path. The boys have their weapons out and immediately they spot a Behemoth roaming in the distance and they try to strike at it, but Eddy's shield and Ed's magic are blocked by an invisible wall. Stopping their attacks, the boys shift their attention to some Heartless that is in the area and they begin to deal with these Heartless.

As they are fighting, Ed notices a treasure chest floating on the invisible ground and he tells Eddy about the chest. With a gleam in his eyes, the greedy Ed breaks away from the fight and heads straight for the chest, causing Double D to order Eddy to get back into the fight. The words fail to reach the small Ed as he sprints over to the treasure chest, hopping over Shadows and ducking under Darkballs, and the boy skids to a stop as a greedy smile appears on his face and he got down onto his knees to begin picking the lock. Thanks to years picking locks with a bobby pin, the small Ed quickly unlocks the chest and puts his hands on the lid, slowly lifting the top to raise his suspense.

As the top reaches the half-way point on its hinges, the lid suddenly throws itself back and out pops out a Neoshadow from the interior. The Heartless prepares a claw and swings right at the small Ed, but the boy quickly rolls back and he grabs his shield to strike back. Quickly dealing some damage, Eddy moves behind the treasure chest and slams the lid shut, preventing the Neoshadow from escaping, and Eddy places a foot onto the chest so he can kick the thing away from the Ed. With the treasure chest screeching across the battlefield, it suddenly caught itself on fire thanks to one of Ed's thunderbolts and the flaming chest collides with a few Neoshadows to destroy those.

The fighting comes to a stop and the Eds begin to notice their surroundings are appearing, meaning now they can see the barrier that was stopping their attacks. The trio starts to head on towards the next portion to see where they can go, only to find two splitting paths leading to two invisible grounds. One of these paths bears the Behemoth the Eds were trying to get at, while the other has no sign of life. Going with their gut, the Ed boys head towards where the Behemoth is, hoping that this path will take them to the glowing sphere.

Upon arriving at the battleground, the boys notice a few weapons lying on and sticking out of the ground. The signs of struggle are present as these lost mementos lie on the ground as the giant Heartless lurks over the battlefield, waiting for its next victims. With a hungry look in its eyes, the Behemoth focuses down on the Eds and prepares itself to strike while the Eds begin to get themselves ready. As the boys begin their assault, a few Darkballs burst out from behind the Behemoth and form a triangular kamikaze formation aiming straight at the three Ed boys.

Distracted by the flying Heartless, the Behemoth starts charging up a Thunder spell on its horn and launching the spell at the Eds. The boys dodge all of the attacks being thrown at them, barely missing the flighty Darkballs and the electrical attacks of the Behemoth as the Eds take their weapons and try to hit the Darkballs while getting to get at the giant Heartless. Using Gravity to bring the head down, Eddy and Double D split away from Ed to take care of the Behemoth while the tall Ed focuses on the Darkballs, which are decreasing by numbers.

The two Eds that have their eyes on the Behemoth take their weapons by their handles and lock on to two separate areas on the Behemoth's head. Double D casts Haste to speed their movements and the two boys got to work bashing away at the head, quickly dealing damage while the Behemoth struggles to get back up. On Ed's end, the tall boy fires off Shadara, Fire and Thundara as his hat uses Reflect to protect the boy and trap the Darkballs in a protective barrier. The three Eds slowly deal with each of their Heartless problems, as Ed delivers one powerful Thundara to shock all of the Darkballs and Double D finishing off the Behemoth with his Keyblade, causing the giant to disappear and a giant heart floating away.

Once the fight comes to a stop, the Eds check around to find the battlefield to be a dead end, meaning they have chosen the wrong path. As they head back to go down the correct path, the Eds spot a boy covered in shadows waiting at the exit. "Hey, isn't that a gatekeeper?" asked Eddy.

"No Eddy, I don't believe that is a gatekeeper," said Double D. "In fact… I got a feeling he isn't here to fight us at all."

"But he looks like he's Father as a kid or one of the Heartless," the small Ed pointed out. "How could he be any help to us? He could trick us into helping us and turn on us when we get close to the exit!"

"It may be as I fought against this person in one of my Awakenings," said the smart Ed. "But something feels different this time. It appears as if he wants to really help us get closer to our goal."

"I don't know about this," said Eddy in a slight worrisome tone. "If you fought against this guy, it could mean that you could be a target if he decides to turn against us."

"Plus I haven't seen a Heartless like that before," said Normadomus. "Whether or not this Heartless is good, it's best that we take precautions and prepare ourselves in case we do find ourselves fighting against this Heartless."

"And I better warn you that he does wield a Keyblade," said Double D.

"So Heartless can wield Keyblades?" questioned Ed.

"If a Nobody can morph his hands into Keyblades, then anything is possible," the small Ed replied acceptingly. "All right, let's get this thing going."

Now with a new partner that is going to help the Eds, the shadow boy turns his back on the Eds and heads off towards the path leading towards the center of the Void. The Eds follow right behind the Heartless, keeping a safe distance and their weapons out in case they need to fight this particular being. Along the path, the Eds encounter Heartless and they quickly defeat each one of them to reveal their path, and they notice that the shadow boy is not doing a single thing to defend himself against the waves of Heartless, only continuing on walking.

A path is slowly revealing itself as the Eds and the shadow boy continue to fight on, as the Heartless boy leads the trio down the right path, while also waiting for the Eds to finish their fights. While in larger rooms, the shadow boy heads off to a corner and watches the battle unfold, not contributing to the fight with his unused Keyblade, only allowing the Eds to take on the Heartless alone. It appears that the shadow boys wants the Eds to fight for themselves, allowing them to prove that they are worthy of getting to the center while testing their skills to the residents of the Void.

When the Eds are done, the shadow boy takes them to the next large area and then continues on walking as the Eds spy some Heartless roaming around and a treasure chest waiting in the middle of the room. Eddy encourages Double D to open the chest, hoping that the small Ed would not get caught in another Neoshadow surprise attack, and the medium Ed uses his Keyblade to unlock the chest to check its contents. To the Eds' surprise there is nothing inside of the chest, causing Eddy to feel relief for no Heartless, but sad that there is nothing else inside of the chest.

The Heartless gather close to the trio and prepare themselves for the fight, causing the Eds to raise their weapons in defense. Recalling an idea that helped them earlier, Ed lights the treasure chest on fire and bats the flaming container towards one batch of Heartless. While the Heartless deal with the flaming chest, the Eds focus their attention on the other Heartless surrounding them, planning out a strategy that will defeat all of the creatures and help expose the path. Breaking away, the Eds quickly deal with each of the Heartless one-by-one, reducing the numbers as quickly as possible so they can continue on.

As soon the battle comes to a halt and the surrounding appears before the Eds, they turn to find an opened path leading straight for the large sphere of light. With their destination in sight, the boys sprint towards the exit and begin to start the second part of their journey. However a strong force pushes the Eds away from the exit and a ball of dark light begins to form at the entrance. The light begins to form into a muscular being, with wings forming on its back and arms, a bladed tail, a pair of unusual horns that forms the outline of a heart, and its right hand is an unusual blue sword with Japanese characters written on the blade.

Now completely formed, this new Heartless floats above the Eds and blocks the entrance and the Ed boys got back on their feet to recognize their new enemy. "Great, now we have to face off against one of these things?" said Eddy.

"Be careful boys," said the wizard hat. "This here is an Invisible, a powerful Heartless even stronger than a Neoshadow. If this thing is the gatekeeper here, we need to come up with a strategy to get it down."

"Well I got a good idea on how to defeat this thing," said the small Ed, preparing his shield.

Grabbing onto the handle, Eddy chunks his shield at the new Heartless in hopes of defeating it on one go, but the Invisible takes its sword and bunts the cauldron down. Ed prepares a Thundara on the Heartless and launches it, only for the Invisible to catch the lightning with its blade and tossing the electrified sword down on the Eds. The boys got out of the way in time as the Invisible fades into thin air, prompting the Eds to search the area to where the Heartless is going to strike.

Double D can feel a cold presence right behind him and he swing his Keyblade to hit whatever is right behind him, but he only got himself into a full spin. Ed gathers some energy to use Fire and Thundara, but all of his hits miss whatever is circling the Eds, and even Eddy's shield attacks are not doing anything. Soon the Invisible appears right in the middle of the Eds, grabbing onto the hilt of the sword and starts to lift the sword up from the ground.

"Quick, jump up and start hitting the Invisible!" ordered Normadomus in a hurry.

The Eds did as they were told, jumping up as high as they could, and they focus their attention on the Invisible. The Heartless lifts its sword up from the ground, causing some energy to spill out from the crack and forms a ring of powerful energy. Dodging the energy ring, the Eds quickly strike the vulnerable Invisible before it takes its sword and spins a full circle, knocking the boys down hard. Back on the ground, the Eds got onto their feet and they try again to strike the Invisible, but the Heartless is moving very quickly and occasionally vanishes from the trio's sight.

The Invisible is proving itself to be a strong adversary, wearing the Ed boys out with its swift movements and disappearing from their sights. Ed's hat tries to use Reflectara to trap the Heartless, but the Invisible dodges the move and throws its sword at the hat to try to slice the wizard in half. Ed does the boldest, or stupidest, move by jumping up and catching the sword by his teeth, shocking the Eds and his own hat and got the Invisible to be angrier. Ed drops the sword from his mouth and puts a smile on his face as the Eds watch the sword being called back to its master, as the Invisible takes the sword and launches towards the Eds.

Eddy blocks the incoming attack, skidding across the ground for a good few feet, and he tries to break the test of strength, but the Invisible is too strong for the Ed. The tall Ed comes around and got a Terra spell going, causing the ground to split and launches a sharp rock spike up into the Heartless. Grabbing onto the rock and pulling itself up, the Invisible takes itself and tries to shake off the pain, but this is leaving the Heartless vulnerable to all attacks from the Ed boys. Double D got himself into position and he delivers the final blow to the Heartless, slicing through the injured being and making it disappear to leave the Eds alone once again.

"Hey, I warned you that we shouldn't trust that kid," said Eddy, "but do any of you listen to me?"

"Well the shadow kid wasn't really trying to get us killed," said Ed's hat. "It appears he knows the dangers and was only trying to lead us down the right path, even if it means leading us to the strongest gatekeepers if we want to get to the Destroyer in time."

As the hat is talking, the shadow boy appears at the exit waiting for the Ed boys to get moving. The Eds can see that they have made it to the halfway mark in this part of the Void and there is only more of the Void left unexplored to the Eds. Keeping their weapons out, the trio head towards the shadow boy and the Heartless continues to lead the boys down the path to the center. Passing by the rocks, the Eds can see that there are weapons and armor lying across the ground, meaning a few men and women have managed to get this far but have fallen to the Heartless or the gatekeeper.

In the distance, the Eds notice there is two Behemoths roaming about and strangely one of these Behemoths is blue instead of purple, although it is hard to make out the details on this giant. The Eds decide to head for the purple Behemoth to get their strength up and also clear the path, but their first priority is getting a path that will lead them to the Behemoths and that is what the shadow boy and the Ed boys are going to do. Taking on the Heartless that are in the in the room, the Eds got to work on clearing the path leading to the first Behemoth and the shadow boy heads off towards the entrance pointing to the right direction.

Following the path of the shadow boy, the trio fought waves and waves of Heartless while revealing walls and the ground as the trio got closer and closer to the Behemoth. After roaming through hallways full of Heartless, the Eds round a corner to find the Behemoth waiting in another large open space, and the boys once again notice the remains of several fallen warriors but in few numbers this time. The Behemoth notices their presences and begins to attack the Eds, along with some Neoshadows joining in on the fight.

Going with their previous plan, Eddy and Double D focus on quickly defeating the giant while Ed goes for the weaker Neoshadows. However the Neoshadows lock their eyes onto the other two Eds and they begin to head towards the boy by moving through the shadows, but Ed steps in with his Terra spell to stop the Neoshadows. Along with stopping the smaller Heartless, the ground provides some lift for the other two Eds and they jump up to land their weapons onto the Behemoth's head.

The Eds want to end this battle as quickly as possible, but with the Neoshadows as challenging as they are, the three are going to need to figure out a way around these obstacles in order to get to hurt the Behemoth. Relying on Eddy's Super Slide ability, the small Ed got onto his shield and starts skidding across the room, luring the Neoshadows in his direction while Ed and Double D got to work on the head. With both dealing damage with their weapons onto the head, the two fighting Eds quickly beat the Behemoth up to when Eddy slides towards the creature and delivers the final blow with his icy shield.

Once the Eds are done, the surroundings begin to flicker and Ed casts Thundara right behind him to defeat the Neoshadows, and the surroundings solidify. The shadow boy reappears and is waiting for the Ed boys to continue on with their journey. The four gather up at the exit and they continue on through this invisible maze to get ever so closer to the glowing sphere and the other Behemoth. Heartless after Heartless appear out of nowhere just to slow the Eds down, but the Eds sweep through the numbers and got their surroundings to appear.

After a few minutes and nearly all of their surroundings completely showing, the shadow boy leads the Eds to the final area of the maze and continues on to where the exit is supposed to be, only to be heading straight up to the Behemoth and then disappear underneath the creature. The giant Heartless did not feel the shadow go underneath, as the blue flame-decaled Behemoth, with a white horn and two black tusks, stares down at the three Eds with the same yellow eyes. Black hooves with purple tips are clawing at the ground and ready to use all that it has, this Behemoth lowers its head and aims its horn at the Eds in preparations for the fight ahead.

Unlike the other two Behemoths, there are no smaller Heartless to help aid the Behemoth so the Eds are relief on that, but they do not know that this Behemoth is slightly more powerful than its other brothers. Double D prepares Haste to get him some momentum to rush up to the lowered head, but as soon his Keyblade made contact, he notices that there is less damage to when he and the others tried to take on the other Behemoths. The giant gores the smart Ed, knocking the boy back towards the others, and the Heartless begins to charge towards the Eds.

Normadomus tries to use Gravity to bring the horn closer to the ground, but the boys notice that the Behemoth is still continuing on walking, ignoring the anomaly. The three boys got out of the way as the Behemoth charges up to where the Eds used to be, while the creature focuses its attention on only Double D. Eddy and Ed got their weapons and start to bash away at the back legs, but the Behemoth bucks up and powerfully blows the two Eds away from the Heartless and straight into a boulder. Eddy slowly and painfully peels himself away from the crater as Ed slips down onto the ground and his hat heals them up using Curaga.

On Double D's end, the Keyblader uses all of his magic tricks to try to reduce the health of the Behemoth, but even Light is having a hard time reducing the health down. In the smart Ed's mind, he is wondering how they can take down the Invisible and three Behemoths, but this one is taking a bit longer in depleting its health. During each one of Double D's attacks, the Behemoth tries to stomp out the Ed with its hooves, but the Ed dodges the attacks with Haste. The Behemoth also tries to gore the Ed with its horn, but Double D will either dodge the horn or block with his Keyblade, hoping that the weapon's Limit Break will help with defeating the Behemoth.

Eddy comes running up behind the Behemoth and launches up onto one of the legs of the Behemoth, along with Ed jumping onto the other leg, and the two Eds begin to climb up to the giant's back. The small Ed got up onto the back first and he takes his shield by the cauldron's handle to puncture the Behemoth with the shield's two legs, causing the Behemoth to buck with pain. Ed latches his fingers into the hide of the Heartless as he continues to climb on its back, while Eddy is holding onto his shield as the weapon begins to slowly losing its grip. When the Behemoth lands back on its feet, the two climbing Eds land hard on the Heartless' back and they quickly got back up on their feet, only allowing them the chance to finally do damage.

Double D casts Distraction to break away from the Behemoth and he lands in an area of the battlefield to notice his friends are on the back of the Heartless. Groaning to himself that he has to go save his friends, the smart Ed twirls his Keyblade as he got himself ready to perform Rush Arcane, just as there are large thunderbolts raining down on top of the Heartless. The Behemoth lets out a roar in anger as it tries to remove the annoyance on its back, but Double D intervenes by using one of his Limit Breaks on the creature's belly.

The Behemoth slams down on the ground to cause a shockwave to hurt the Eds, but the trio is out of harm's way thanks to being near the Behemoth. However and strangely, the shockwave bounces off and knock the three off of their feet, but only to trip them instead of causing severe damage. The two Eds on the Behemoth's back notice that they are slipping off of the Heartless and they try to stay on, but they lost their grips and start to fall to the ground. Double D tries to get back on his feet and escape from underneath, but he notices that the Behemoth is closing on him and is going to squeeze him to death.

Noticing the glimmer on his Keyblade, this is the moment that Double D has been waiting for and he got his Keyblade ready for the final strike. Eddy and Ed also got their weapons ready, while trying to find a way to survive the landing of their fall. The small Ed jumps onto his shield and starts sliding down along the Behemoth's hind leg, while Ed jabs the butt of the staff to slow his descend down, which is doing some serious damage to the Heartless. For the final move, Double D takes Joker's Wild and strikes the belly with the Limit Break, dealing massive damage and got the Heartless to fall.

The three Eds got out of the way as the Behemoth begins to fade away and its giant heart begins to fly off. Once the giant is gone, the Eds plop to the ground and let out a sigh, noticing that their surroundings are forming and the shadow boy is not waiting for them. Normadomus opens his mouth and casts Curaga on all three Eds, getting them back at full health as the trio got back onto their feet.

"All right, so that's two gatekeepers down," panted Eddy. "How many more of these things do we need to get through before we fight Jib?"

"I don't know Eddy," replied Double D. "As far as I know, this place is call the Everlasting Void and we could be fighting for all eternity until this place wants to give us the rights to either go to the center or leave this place in one piece."

"It's probably going to be the former since we can't exactly leave this place without suffering some consequences," stated Ed's hat. "We need to keep traversing this world until we hit the final gate and head straight for Kingdom Hearts."

The three boys give each other a nod as they focus their attention at the gateway leading into the glowing sphere that is before them. As of now, the Eds are going deeper into the Void than most of the previous adventurers and explorers of this black hole. With their determination driving them and their goal getting closer, the Ed boys start heading towards the gate and pass through the outer layer of the glowing sphere to continue on exploring the Void. From above one rock, the shadow boy watches the Eds slip away as the boy himself fades into the world's atmosphere.

OOO

The Ed walk through a strange passageway of light for a minute or so before taking a step onto something hard, and their eyes begin to adjust as they notice their surroundings to be a cave. The Eds notice that the cave is a rather spacious place with several rocky platforms floating in the air and sticking out of the walls. The rocks are a dark blue and purple, with a few areas glowing brightly to help the Eds see where they are going. There is also some Heartless climbing along the walls, with most of these being Shadows, and the Eds head into the shadows when a couple of Darkballs climb up from the darkness that is the main tunnel.

"OK so we experienced a maze for our first challenge," said Double D, "and now we are dealing with a vertical maze? If this is meant to test us, then I guess a vertical maze will try to test us on we work together in these kinds of situations and more on our endurance."

"I'm going to guess we need to go down if we want to get out of this place," said Eddy.

"I'm not sure that's going to be that easy," answered the smart Ed, sticking his hand out to get a feel of wind blow or water dropping. He feels a droplet hit his finger, splashing the underside as the Ed pulls his finger up to inspect it. "If this place is meant to test us, having us go just down isn't going to really prove that we are worthy of moving on."

"And I don't think this tunnel's gravity will allow us to go down," Normadomus pointed out, noticing a few water droplets heading up to the ceiling.

"Why don't we follow the trail of carnage?" offered Ed, pointing his staff over to one potential entrance.

The others look over to where Ed is pointing and they notice that there is a worn-out rope dangling from the edge of the exit. Figuring that this is the path one team, possibly others, have taken in the paths and seeing no other exits to try, the Eds jump down from their spot onto one platform and begin heading over to where the rope is. Once to the rope, Eddy grabs onto the rope and climbs up, follow up by Double D and then, with some help from the others Ed. The three Eds check the tunnel they are in and notice that there are a few weapons on the ground, surprising only a couple of swords and armor, meaning there are some strong enemies from this point on.

The boys got their latest challenge by exploring the maze-like cavern they are in and try to figure out where to go next, looking towards a few exits for signs of fallen life or a struggle to potentially point them in the right direction. Along the way, the Eds encounter some Heartless, with one type appearing to be a Neoshadow but have orange scars instead of blue scars all over their bodies. Double D remembers these Heartless being called a Novashadow and these Heartless strike with the same force as its Neoshadow brothers. The Eds dodge these Heartless and continue on with their trek to find their way out of the maze and closer to the end.

Double D keeps his eyes out for something that will help get them to the exit and he has been hitting the right exits. Along their trail are fallen weapons and occasional pieces of armor, meaning that they are walking along the right path but they are going to lose their trail if they find nothing when getting close to the end. The large numbers of Heartless is not doing the Eds justice in getting to this supposed end, as each one of these strong Heartless is slowing the Eds down and wearing them out.

With each passing second, the Eds venture through the complex maze by entering a vast vertical shaft and then either climbing up or dropping down to get to their next destination. Upon occasion, the boys will hit a Gravity barrier that prevents them from going up or down and will knock them back to where they originally started, forcing them to restart and try a different path. Soon the Eds can hear the sounds of a struggle echoing down one tunnel, which is getting the Eds' attention.

Heading down the tunnel, the noise of the struggle begins to die down and the Eds find themselves in a large room with an orange and black sword sticking out of the ground. There is also a silhouette leaving the tunnel, which is making the Eds wonder who else could be in these tunnels since they never saw another Gummi ship enter the Void, nor was the Void open to anyone when they arrived. Still, the shadow got their attention and they make a break for the exit, when they slam into an invisible wall and can feel the presence of a strong Heartless in the room.

The Eds turn around and notice shadows gathering around the sword, which looks similar to the sword wielded by the Invisible, and a winged arm reaches out to grab the sword. Upon materializing, the Heartless that is before the Eds has the same appearance as the Invisible, but the coloring is orange instead of blue. This is similar to how there are Novashadows roaming the tunnels instead of Neoshadows, and the Eds begin to speculate that this is for the different sections of the Void.

The trio snaps back to reality when they realize that they are in a fight and they dodge the sword that was thrown at them. The Heartless, identified as an Orcus by Ed's hat, barrels right at the Eds and retrieves its sword, taking the hilt to only swing the large sword at the Eds. Ed intercepts the sword with his staff and tries to duel the Orcus, but Eddy grabs the tall Ed by his collar and drags him away as the Orcus swings its sword down onto the Ed boys. The Heartless picks its weapon up from the ground and tries again with the sword, but this time turns itself invisible and starts flying at the Eds with the sword visible.

Dodging the flying sword, the Eds try to stop the invisible Heartless by grabbing the hilt, but they fail to grab it as the Orcus is moving too fast for them to hold onto the hilt. Eventually the Orcus appears above the Eds and Normadomus warns the Eds to jump. The Heartless slams its sword down into the ground, causing a ring of energy to burst out, and the hovering boys start flailing at the Orcus, this time they knocked the Heartless out with its body floating in the air and still gripping onto the sword.

Now with an opportunity for a full frontal assault, the Eds got to work using everything they have on the unconscious Heartless. For a few minutes, the Eds inch closer and closer to defeating the Orcus, but they notice the Heartless coming back to life and then lifting up its sword in a fury, as the Orcus takes its weapon and strikes all three Eds down. Upon waking up from being beaten, the Orcus calls forth three Novashadows to help in the fight against the Eds, while the injured Heartless flies up to patch up its wounds.

The Novashadows are prime and ready to take on the Eds, their claws sharpen to deal damage and slice the Eds open. The Eds on the other hand are ready themselves, but they are more interested in dealing with the Orcus instead of three stronger Neoshadows. The Heartless lunge themselves at the three Eds, taking on one of them at a time, as the Eds defend themselves against the Novashadows. Up above, the Orcus silently watches the fight as its wounds slowly begin to heal, restoring the lost energy that was beaten out from the Eds.

Eddy struggles with his fight as he kept on defending for himself, using his shield to block each attack from the Novashadow as Ed and Double D use their weapons to deal damage to the Heartless. The small Ed finally got his chance to strike by taking a few steps back and swings his shield like a bat, hitting the Novashadow square hard and knocking the Heartless off of its feet. The Ed then takes his shield and gives it one good toss, watching his shield cut through the Novashadow and then grabbing his weapon in victory.

Ed is using his staff to block the swipes of his Novashadow and upon occasion will use a magic spell to knock the Heartless back. His hat also uses some of his white magic to protect the Ed and push the Heartless away, but all of that is making the Heartless angrier. The Novashadow rips through an Aerora spell and swipes at Ed's shirt, only to miss by a few inches and the Ed takes his staff to whack the Heartless on the head. Once the book made contact, Ed begins to charge up a Thundara and unleashes his powerful spell down on the Novashadow, obliterating the Heartless and snagging a victory for the Ed boy.

Double D is the last of the three to defeat his Heartless, though he is having some trouble despite having a useful weapon. A good swing from the Novashadow and the Ed blocks the attack with the shaft of his weapon, causing the two to go into a test of strength as the Heartless takes its free hand and claw at the Ed boy. Double D breaks away from the test and got himself away from the sneak attack before he begins to come up with a plan to defeat this Heartless. Getting a Fire spell going, he watches the Novashadow for a bit before closing the spell on the creature and sealing its fate.

Now done with the three Novashadows, the Orcus comes slamming down from its resting place and the Eds jump up to dodge the ring of energy. The boys got to work beating away at the Orcus in hopes of knocking the being out, but the Heartless gathers some strength and blasts some energy from its being, knocking the Eds away and got them down on the ground. Taking its sword from the ground, the Orcus singles out Double D and charges right at the Ed in an attempt to stop the Keyblader from getting any further. Ed got up from his fall and grabs his staff to stop the Heartless from striking down his friend, only to send out a fireball with a face and mouth from the book and straight at the Orcus.

The Heartless shifts its attention to Ed, staring at him evilly and Eddy comes charging up from behind to stab the Orcus in the back. The Orcus takes its sword and swings it at the small Ed, but he dodges that as Ed charges up another fireball with a face and burns the Heartless. Now trap and getting severely hurt, Double D takes his Keyblade and prepares it to use it on the Heartless to deliver the final blow to the Heartless. The smart Ed slices through the Orcus with no effort, causing the Heartless to fall in defeat and fade away into the darkness, leaving nothing behind including its sword.

"OK, so did anyone catch which way that shadow was going?" asked Eddy, reminding the others about the silhouette.

"I believe it went to our right," answered Double D. "I'm still wondering how there is someone else in this place when the Void was sealed up and we didn't see any ship enter the black hole."

"This might have happened when we were in the wormhole," said Ed's hat. "That Gummi ship might have slipped through before we got out, and whoever was inside must have known about the passage through the first stage to get this far."

"Yeah, but how come we are seeing this guy now?" the small Ed questioned. "We managed to catch up to this guy so we need to chase after this guy and get the answers out of him."

"It may be Jib," Ed pitched.

"It might, but we don't know unless we head down deeper in this maze and get to the end just when this person does," Double D stated, looking towards the exit.

The Eds can hear the sound of a faint roar coming from the tunnel, sounding like a Heartless, and the Eds sprint out of the room to continue on with their exploration. Using their ears this time, the boys focus on where the roar came from and start to scurry through the tunnels to get to their latest destination. Some more Heartless appear along the way and the boys quickly deal with each one of them as the Eds reach one vertical shaft and listen to the sounds of an echoing roar.

Hearing the echoes coming from above, the Eds start to climb up where the roar is echoing out of and they head down the path to get ever so closer to the sound. They notice that there are lesser weapons and armors lying on the ground, meaning the numbers of people getting close to Kingdom Hearts are slowly declining until they are the only ones to make it to the sacred place alive. A few Heartless appear along the way, but only the Shadows fail to attack as they seem to be afraid of something, and the Eds are going to find out soon enough.

The roaring comes to a stop and the Eds are now in another shaft, completely lost as to where they need to go. Upon noticing some light out of one tunnel, the trio swings over and quickly heads through the tunnel to find the a very large room and, much to their disappointment, no exit. The Eds begin to think that they may have chosen a dead-end but then there is that deafening roar and the Eds look up to notice the same silhouette moving into the shadows and disappearing from their views. Just as the boys begin to head towards the shadow, they can hear the exit behind them shut tight and the Eds look to see that they are now trap inside of this giant room.

The Eds can feel a strong and ominous presence right behind them and they turn around to notice what appears to be Darkside right behind them. Much like Darkside, this Heartless has a muscular body with a large hole in its chest bearing the shape of a heart. There is also a face wrapped up with its hair leaving only its yellow eyes exposed, and the Heartless has very small feet. However, the Eds notice that this Heartless has an orange complexion instead of a blue one, and the Eds can feel that this particular Heartless is this huge in natural compare to Darkside itself.

"OK… so we have run into a Darkside knock-off," said Eddy casually, trying not to freak out. "So does this mean we got to defeat this thing in order to move on?"

'This isn't some knock-off boy," Normadomus retorted, "this is a Dark Follower, and of course we need to defeat this thing if we want to progress any further. Question is how we are going to do that since when we're pretty far from its hands and head."

"Can't you use your Gravity spells to help us get a swing at its hands or head?" asked Double D.

"I could, but considering how huge and powerful this particular Heartless, we might want to try climbing its arms or getting a giant robot to fight this."

"I'll take the giant robot option," pitched Eddy.

The giant Heartless tilts its head down to notice the three Eds waiting down below and the giant starts to move its body, first moving its right arm and then slamming it deep into the ground. A large shadow begins to emerge from the impact site and then several Heartless emerge from the shadow, mainly Novashadows, and the Heartless sprint away from their summoning grounds to take on the Eds. Focusing on the new Heartless, the Eds quickly try to deal with their latest enemies as the Dark Follower lifts its hand from the ground and prepares for the next attack.

The Dark Follower forms another fist and the Heartless swings its arm above its smaller Heartless to bring the fist down on the Eds. The Eds dodge the attack, but they fail to see a visible shockwave coming out from the impact and they are blown back from the shockwave. The boys got back up on their feet and they watch the Dark Follower prepares its fist again for the same attack, but the Eds try to focus on defeating the smaller Heartless. The trio knows about the incoming attack and they try to use the shockwave to their advantage by having this shockwave destroying the other Heartless.

The Dark Follower takes its fist and slams down on the ground, creating that initial shockwave. The Eds jump over the ripple and watches the Novashadow fall before their creator. Once the Novashadows are gone, the Eds focus on getting up onto the Dark Follower, but the giant begins to create energy inside of its heart-shaped hole and fires off several energy-like meteors. The Eds dodge the barrage of energy by weaving through each of the fallen attacks, and the Dark Follower continues to burst out each attack as the energy inside the hole gets smaller and smaller.

"OK Double D, we need to do something fast!" stated the small Ed. "Can't you use that last summoning charm on this thing!"

"I could, but I was hoping we can use this charm when we find Jib," replied Double D.

"But now's a perfect time to use that charm and hope that whatever you summon is big enough to take this thing on!" Eddy stated.

Letting out a sigh, Double D reaches into his pocket and pulls out his last summoning charm and he grips onto the charm. Feeling the energy emitting from the charm, he frees the charm from his grasps and allows it to dangle on his fingers, allowing the stone to glow brightly. Shortly, the light begins to envelop the Eds and they can feel themselves being lifted up as the light fills up the room and causes the Dark Follower to cover its eyes.

The three Eds begin to float around in a circle as they start noticing their surrounding turning dark and strange green letters appear around them. Then some blue and yellow machines appear out of nowhere and start fusing together, creating new links and morphing into body parts. Then the Eds recognize that the machines are part of two mecha suits and one giant clear robot as the machines form arms, hands, legs and feet as the boys notice two human beings, a black haired man and a blonde girl rising up to where the head is to meet up with a floating orb, only to have an electrified cable to connect the three.

On the outside, the Dark Follower lowers its arm to notice the light is gone and replacing the Eds is a giant robot made out of a clear armor and is showing off a mixture of dark blue and yellow machines. The mecha appears to be a gladiator, with a muscular built and a head bearing the resemblance of a gladiatorial helmet, and the machines are glowing brightly in the dark room. The chest bears a heart in the middle, holding the yellow mech, and the Heartless is wondering what is going on, while inside of the head there is some confusion on the situation itself.

"_Octus, where are we?_" asked the black-haired man. "_This isn't Sherman, Galaluna or Mutraddi… is it?"_

"**According to these scans that I'm getting from the surroundings**," said the orb, sounding like a male, "**our current location is somewhere deep inside of a location known as the Everlasting Void.**"

"_The Everlasting Void?_" echoed the blonde girl. "_I thought that black hole was sealed off by the Pure Hearted some time ago. How could have we gotten ourselves inside of the Void when it has been sealed off? And speaking of, how did we get here anyway?_"

"_Uh, if you can excuse us_," said Double D, "_but isn't there any chance that you people can explain who you are? We will be happy to explain the situation that you are in, as long as you can help us out in our predicament._"

"_Who are you three and how did you get inside of Titan?_" the man asked. "_We are the only ones that can be in Titan, so you three should get out of here before I have to kick you three out_."

"_Will you cool it Lance?_" asked the girl. "_They appear to be our side and also don't have a clue on how they got inside of Titan. Plus they have some information on how we got here and why we are in this situation._"

"_Yes. My name is Double D, and these are my friends Eddy and Ed_," explained the smart Ed. "_I used a summoning charm that called you… three here from another world, and we are hoping we can use your assistance against this Heartless here._"

"_Heartless, you say?_" said the man, causing the robot on the outside to focus its vision on the Dark Follower. "_Oh yeah, I remember fighting one of these things before, especially this particular one._"

"**A Dark Follower, if I may recall**," said the orb. "**This is one of the Heartless the Mutraddi sent after us in hopes of capturing us and acquiring the princess**."

"_Princess?_" echoed Eddy. "_Where is this princess?_"

"_That would be me_," the girl answered. "_My name is Illana and I'm the princess of Galaluna, and this is Lance and Octus. We are inside of a robot we call Sym-Bionic Titan, and really I don't remember we were in this state when we were sent here_."

"_I'm going to guess that was probably the summoning charm that did that_," answered Double D. "_We are hoping that this charm will be some use to us, so I guess we got a good summon here to help aid us_."

"_Well whatever you guys did, it's lucky you call us here_," said the man named Lance, causing the robot to get into a fighting position. "_It's been quiet around Sherman these days so being called here is a bit of change of pace for us_."

"**Now Lance, we shouldn't rush into this fight**," said the orb the girl called Octus. "**I'm detecting something different with this Dark Follower from when we previously fought against this adversary**."

"_And that will be?_" asked the girl Illana.

"**This particular Heartless is somehow absorbing the surrounding darkness into its body, building up its strength**," said Octus. "**It probably has to do with the Void, considering that this place is home to hundreds of pureblood Heartless. This Dark Follower is one of those Heartless and is not likely to go down without a fight**."

"_OK, so that means you guys will be the ones to take this thing down!_" stated Eddy. "_Great, another break from fighting the Heartless! Can't this journey get any better?_"

"_Well since we are here, we might as well help you three in defeating this Heartless_," said Illana, getting a shield generated in the robot's left hand.

Lance creates a sword for the other hand of the robot known as Titan and the three controlling this clear robot got the giant into a battle position. The Dark Follower is a bit confused on the situation but registers that Titan is going to strike the Heartless with the sword, and the giant Heartless begins to charge up some energy in its heart hole. The Dark Follower blasts the energy in a continuous beam at the robot and Illana raises the shield to block the attack, causing Titan to skid back a few feet before coming to a stop.

Lowering its defense, Titan takes its shield and charges right at the Heartless with a sword ready to swing. The Dark Follower prepares an arm and it catches the swinging sword, shocking the Eds and the pilots, as the Heartless takes its free arm and punches the robot in the stomach. Skidding a few feet away, Titan catches itself and tries to throw its shield, channeling a part from Eddy, and the shield chips only a small piece of the Dark Follower's shoulder. Shadows begin to leech away from the walls and start to accumulate on the Dark Follower, patching up the chipped shoulder as the people inside of the robot begin to wonder what to next.

"_OK, now that's going to be an issue_," said Double D.

"**If we are going to continue like this, we are more likely to break down and cause us to revert to our regular forms**," warned Octus.

"_So what are we going to do about it?_" asked Eddy.

"_We just need to beat this thing where it needs time to recharge and healing itself, and then we deliver the final attack_," explained Lance.

"_The question is how long it is going to take to get this Heartless to get to that state?_" asked Illana, offering a good question.

Titan got itself ready to charge up at the Dark Follower and fists begin to fly from the giant robot. Each hit is making contact on the Heartless, but it is hard to tell whether or not this is really doing any damage. The robot is using all sorts of martial arts moves on the Heartless, but the Dark Follower only needs one good punch to knock Titan back. Once coming to a stop, Titan begins to take off some of its armor and reveals several barrels of firearms, each ranging from different types of explosives, and Titan fires off each and every one of these firearms.

The Dark Follower takes every last one of the rounds hitting the being, only allowing the shadows to patch up the new wounds. Titan continues to waste round on the Heartless in hopes of creating that opening, but the Heartless begins to create energy in its heart and fires it at Titan. The robot takes the attack head on and suffers some damage from the beam attack, causing the firing to stop and seal up its internal machines to prevent further damage. Once the robot got itself back up, the people notice that the Dark Follower is moving towards them, meaning it is going for a close combat approach.

Ed pitches an idea on how to defeat the Dark Follower, involving using some of his magic. Refiguring out the idea, Titan begins to move as the robot forms a fist and smashes the ground, creating a fissure and causing the Dark Follower to step back. Once the ground settles, the Heartless ignores the split ground and takes its hands to lift them up, and from the crack a wall of dark energy rockets out and splits through Titan in half. Damage inside of the robot causes everyone to feel pain, as Titan struggles to stay on its own two feet.

"_What's going on here?_" asked Double D. "_Is this robot going to break apart if we take another hit like that?_"

"**That sounds just about right**," answered Octus. "**That attack did some damage to our internal systems and it may have likely to blacken our sight temporary. Luckily it didn't do that, but if we get hit by something like that again, Titan is more than likely to come undone**."

"_Just like Ed's Shade attack!_" stated Eddy.

"_Then there's got to be something we can use on this thing_," said Lance. "_It seems like with you three here, we have been getting some new powers. Is there something that you three have that we might use?_"

"_How about my Keyblade?_" offered Double D.

"_A Keyblade huh…_" Illana echoed. "_That might be what we need to defeat this Heartless. So that means you are a Keyblade Master, are you not?_"

"_What is it calling Double D a Master?_" asked Eddy. "_He isn't a Master at anything as far as I know_."

"**According to our legends, whoever wields a Keyblade on Galaluna is destined to be a Master of the Keyblade and will lead the people of Galaluna against even the strongest of enemies, including the Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed**," Octus quoted. "**Though this legend has yet to come true, this might be true if this boy here is the one mentioned…**"

"_Uh Octus, Illana, can we please save that for another time and focus on this fight?_" asked Lance, as a punch hits Titan and rocks the inside of the robot.

Focusing back on the fight, the people inside of the robot begin to wonder how they are going to call forth a Keyblade, when Double D imagines the sword in his hand and a clear Kingdom Key appears in Titan's right hand. Lance takes control of this weapon and Titan prepares to use its new weapon as the Dark Follower begins to throw another punch. The Heartless takes its fist and slams into the robot's Keyblade, blocking the attack as Titan steps back and takes a swing at the Heartless.

The Keyblade lands a hit on the Heartless and the robot knocks the Dark Follower back this time, sending the giant into the opposite wall. The Dark Follower recovers from the blow and charges up another energy attack inside of the heart hole. Once blasting the beam, Titan blocks the attack with the Keyblade and the robot opens up some panels on its free arm to shoot at the Heartless, increasing the damage. As the beam dies down, Titan charges up and swings the Keyblade down on the Dark Follower to cut an arm off.

The Heartless reaches out with its remaining hand and grapples onto Titan's head, crushing down as the fallen arm breaks down and forms smaller Heartless. These Heartless proceed to climb onto Titan and start clawing at the thick clear armor, doing little damage as the robot struggles to break free from the Dark Follower's grip. Titan then takes the Keyblade and slashes through the wrist to free itself from the Heartless, and the robot kicks away the Heartless that is on its feet by shaking the smaller creatures off. Once free, Titan got the Keyblade ready to go as everyone watches shadows leeching off the wall and seep into the Dark Follower.

Titan got its guns ready and starts shooting away, missing the Dark Follower and hits only the shadows leeching into the Heartless, destroying whatever is healing the giant. The Dark Follower lets out a growl as the giant looks towards its fallen arm and reaches down to grab it, but Titan rushes over and kicks the arm out of reach, preventing the Heartless from reattaching its arm. The Dark Follower tries to jab Titan with its stump arm, but the robot slashes at the arm to cut that free and then pierces through the Heartless to deliver the final blow.

Removing the Keyblade, the Dark Follower collapses down on its knees and starts to fade away, along with its fallen arms and any surviving Heartless. Titan calls back its Keyblade as everyone inside of the robot celebrates and begins to feel the robot vibrating. Soon, the Eds find themselves back on the ground along with two mechs, with one a blue gladiator with large round shoulders and the other being a yellow female robot, and a small clear, rotund robot with small mechanic and the same orb that was connecting Lance and Illana.

"So is this your true form?" asked Ed.

"_No, we're human just like you_," said the yellow robot, being voiced by Illana. "_These are our special suits that help form Titan, along with protecting us from Heartless and gunfire_."

"Huh, so those things help protect you from any sorts of attacks," said Eddy, "even attacks from possibly an evil imaginary friend?"

"**You saw the limit of how much damage Titan can take**," said the clear robot known as Octus. "**These armored suits are meant to take physical damage, not any sort of magic based attacks that will interfere with Lance, Illana or me**."

"That could probably go for the same with EMPs," mumbled Double D.

"_Well we don't have to worry about that now_," said the blue mech, voiced by Lance. "_All that remains is for us to return to Sherman_."

"I think that will be done automatically," answered Double D. "We have done this before and I know that once we are done with you, you will return to wherever you came from."

"_Well, if we were to ever meet again, come over to Sherman_ and maybe we can have a pleasant chat about some random events that's going on," offered Illana as her robot body begins to fade away.

"**I also want to talk about how you were able to summon us like that**," said Octus, his body also fading away.

"_And thanks for bringing us to fight_," said Lance. "_It's a good change of pace for the three of us. Maybe we can have a sparring match if we ever meet again_."

"I highly doubt about that, but it'll be nice to meet you two out of your robot suits," Double D replied.

The three robots begin to fade away and only for a brief second did the boys see some humans where the three robots were standing. Once the trio of robots fades into the darkness, a portal appears right in front of the Eds and they begin to head towards the portal, before stopping in front. They begin to catch their breath and also heal up using the potions and ethers that they acquired, regaining that lost energy as they focus on the portal to imagine what lies beyond.

"All right, through that portal leads us hopefully to Jib," said the smart Ed. "We are probably the first people to get this far and now we are just moments away from meeting our strongest enemy yet."

"There is also that one person we saw earlier," stated Eddy. "If we can find him, he might be able to tell us what's been going on and hopefully get his help in defeating Jib."

"Are we going to win this and go home?" asked Ed.

"Let's hope Ed… all we can do now is hope…"

* * *

OK, I got the Eds to make up, but now we are deep into this story.

So this is pretty much how the End of the World works in a way, but I decided on mixing things up a bit by really showing that this is a proving ground instead of another world. So for this chapter, this is a two stage, four parts challenge where the Eds need to work through an invisible maze while fighting the Heartless to reveal their path and defeat the gatekeepers, and then work through a vertical maze while defeating one gatekeeper and a Dark Follower. Yep, it definitely shows that this is one dangerous world, even though I mentioned that this place _is_ a black hole.

OK, so I was thinking that for the first half of this chapter will be to put the Eds through a maze that will show itself when the Eds defeat the Heartless. It's kinda similar to how we fought the Heartless in the End of the World, but only the battlefield was shown during the fight and nothing afterwards. So kinda switching things up a bit does add a little variety and also makes things easier for the Eds instead of ramming into invisible walls (at this point, we need to get serious). And the second half is like walking in a vertical maze, which does boost the difficulty when you don't have Shadow Sora offering you the way and, of course, the gatekeepers getting in your way.

And I want to say that I am disappointed that Cartoon Network is giving up on _Sym-Bionic Titan_. It, along with another robot show that I like, has appeal to the channel and it was doing pretty well, but I don't see how we could let such a brilliant idea go to waste? Oh wait, I forgot… we need to have live-action bull crap instead and also an annoying Canadian cartoon to be on the air for several years before they come to their senses and realize their terrible mistake. If it weren't for the lack of advertisement, the crazy demand for merchandize, and also the rearranging of timeslots, _Titan_ could be getting a new season and we could be seeing a new arc in the show. But then again we don't know if the show is going to make a return, so I hope you like this little tribute to the show. (I was trying to figure out how everyone was going to speak within Titan, so I decided on using italics since they are using their minds and left Octus as speaking in his robot voice, even though I could have used his Newton tone.)

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is the second half of the Everlasting Void, and you should recall this part being a little trip across the universe…


	26. Act IV, Ch 26: Everlasting Void, part 2

OK, this is going to be a challenge for me. What I am going to do here is very similar to what happened towards the final fight with Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness. You are going into these little stands and are transported to worlds you already visited and you take on the Heartless one more time in hopes of leveling up before the final fight. Well I am going to try to pull that off by having at least two pages per world (one entering and one exiting).

If everything goes according to plan, I should have a pretty decent sequence that will hopefully seam the world together while I throw in one more trick up my sleeve. Yeah I should do something to break up all of this action, but then again… wait, what? Anyway, let's get this chapter going!

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story**.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Six – The Bridge across Dimensions

OOO

The Eds can feel the pressure difference at the exit of the tunnel and they burst out to find themselves in a rather spacious place. The place is dark and heavy with an ominous presence lingering, as far down there is a black pit with a swirling ring of clouds and dark lighting reaching out from the clouds, reminding the Eds of when they first came to the Void. The boys pan their eyes up away from the black hole as they notice twelve stone shrines floating in the negative space and a continuous stone path linking each shrine before the path leads deep down to the black void.

Double D focuses his eyes on one of the shrines to see what is there for anyone to worship, only to find nothing anything religious inside. Instead, there is some rather open space with a floating ball of energy in the middle of the shrine, which may be some kind of worship item but the Ed is uncertain about this until he sees this item up close. Ed and his hat are looking around the open space, while Eddy walks up to the edge of the platform the Eds are on and he leans his head down to stare deep into the black void to drop some spit down and watch the drop head deep into the blackness.

"Whoa, that's quite a drop," cooed Eddy, carefully looking over the edge. "So to say if one of us were to fall down into that, we'll never come back out alive?"

"That's pretty much how the place works," said the wizard hat. "According to the number of weapons and armors we have seen beyond that portal, we are probably the first people to successfully get this far and then to make it to the exit."

"But where exactly is this supposed exit?" asked Double D, looking along the path to find its end. "From what I'm seeing, this path leads straight down into the void below and I really hate that we keep continuing on the same path before we collapsed and die!"

"Hey, don't get too worked up," the small Ed replied. "The last thing that I want to do here is end up down that hole and become lost in the history of the universe. There's so many things that I want to do, with one of those things is getting back at my brother for all of what he has done to me in the past!"

"Well we aren't exactly going to go home unless we finished what we came here for," the smart Ed replied. "These shrines might hold the final keys we need to open the path to Jib, so we need to be prepared for what's to come and also at our full strength once we are done with this trial."

"Are we going to be using our potions for this?" asked Ed.

"It's probably for the best we do that once we are done, since we do need to conserve our mana if we want to use our magic on Jib."

"Yes, using magic on a man known as the Destroyer of Light," said Normadomus in a slight sarcastic tone. "Well if we're going to rely on magic, we need to use some Limit Breaks if we want to get any damage down."

"OK, so we have a plan as to how we are going to defeat Jib," said Double D. "Now all we need is to get across this void and hopefully find our way to Jib."

"Why don't you get your motorcycle ready and we can ride across the bridge?" Ed pitched. "It'll make things a lot more fun."

Double D thinks over the plan and starts to see what will be the harm in doing so. The Eds are going to be riding across a long bridge while making stops at twelve shrines, each containing a glowing sphere that may be part of their trial, and they can run into some turbulence on their ride which could lead them to fall into the depths of the Void and be erased from existence. However, the Ed notices that his hovercycle is staying in its form for a long period, so this could be easier for them to ride the vehicle instead of running all along the path.

Calling for his Keyblade, the smart Ed begins to concentrate and transforms his Keyblade into the similar shape of the Joker Hovercycle. Stepping onto the vehicle for possibly their last time, Double D and Ed got themselves comfortable as Eddy wraps his yo-yo around

"Well… we got twelve worlds to hit, we're riding an unstable Keyblade hovercycle, some full potions, Eddy's riding for his dear life, and we're all wearing hats," said Double D.

"Hit it," said Normadomus.

Just as Double D revs the engine, the Eds can hear a terrifying screech coming from down of the black void and Eddy rushes over to notice the lightning is increasing. Soon, from out of the blackness rises the giant Heartless Gummi ship that is called the Pirate Ship, and Eddy rushes back over to warn his friends about the incoming Heartless and they hear the sound of a large explosion right behind them. The boys turn around to notice a cannonball hit the platform they are on and a large hole is sitting where the Eds came out of the portal.

Double D twists the acceleration and the hovercycle flies off onto the stone bridge, snapping Eddy's yo-yo string and forcing the small Ed along for the ride. His shield begins to slide towards the edge and he leans towards the center of the bridge to prevent himself from going into the pit or straight at the Heartless ship. The Pirate Ship continues to climb up as its metal jaw opens up and increases its thrust to take a bite out of the bridge, missing the Eds but got them to throw Double D off.

The smart Ed got his concentration back as the Pirate Ship starts firing off cannonballs at the bridge. Eddy watches for any incoming cannonballs and occasionally jumps up to use his shield to deflect the attacks, as the driver focuses his attention on the approaching shrine. Revving up the engine, Double D carefully steers the bike around a curve as he starts calculating when to swing around the glowing sphere and continue on their path. Just as the moment is about to hit them, the sphere begins to shine brightly and the Eds are consume by the light, disappearing into thin air as the sphere dies down and continues to rest in the shrine.

OOO

Unbeknownst to the Eds, they suddenly find themselves on a paved road in a suburbia neighborhood, and they look to the side of them to find the city of Townsville looming over them, but they notice something different. Despite the suburbs looking very peaceful, the city appears to be in ruins as a towering Heartless causes havoc through the city and terrorizing the fair citizens. The Eds notice the three streaks of light that make up the Powerpuff Girls and they watch the girls head towards Townsville to stop the havoc that is going on.

"Hang on, why are we back in Townsville?" questioned Eddy. "I thought we got the keyhole here and why is this place a wreck?"

"This must be something that happens on a regular basis Eddy," the smart Ed replied. "The Powerpuff Girls are heroes after all and it is their duty to protect this very city from that Heartless attacking."

"True, but something like that shouldn't cause an upscale Heartless attack like that," Normadomus pointed out. "Sealed keyholes are supposed to keep Heartless numbers to a minimum and away from the world's heart, but this… this is what would happen if we fail to do so."

"So is this an image of the future?" asked Double D, sounding a bit concern.

"Probably not, but it could be. For all I know this could be happening in real time, with what the Destroyer is doing right now. This might be causing a rippling effect across the universe, causing Heartless to appear in large numbers and varying sizes, all because a man of unspeakable power is gaining access to the universe's main source of life."

"So all we need to do is keep a straight path and hopefully get back to the Void if we want to stop all of this?" asked Eddy. "Then we better get moving! Double D, let's see how fast we can get this thing going!"

Nodding to this request, the medium Ed revs the engine some more and got the hovercycle going a lot faster, this time clocking over the speed limit. This time ignoring the limit, the three Eds race towards Townsville to see if they can help out in the fight against the Heartless and hopefully get back to their current position in the Void. Ed has his staff ready to go for magic and Eddy with his shield, and Double D has his eyes looking out for incoming debris and any Heartless that may come out at them in surprise and attack them off guard.

After racing down the street for a few minutes, the Eds enter the city limit and already are struck by a war torn city. The Shadows, Neoshadows, Novashadows, Darkballs and Behemoths are roaming all over the streets and there is one towering Darkside destroying the buildings around the Eds. Double D skillfully got the hovercycle into a sharp turn and heads away from a chunk of an apartment that was going to crush the small Ed. The hovercycle sways from side to side to avoid the raining debris, as the tall Ed casts small fireballs to deal with incoming Shadows. It was not long before this becomes a regular task as the smart Ed weaves through the streets to find the exit to this world.

A barricade of Heartless begins to form at one intersection far away from the Eds, possibly preventing them from getting to where the exit is. The Eds are not worry about the Heartless as they are dodging falling pieces of buildings. Double D makes a sharp turn to the right as one chunk of building cuts the boys off from the barricade and forces them to make a detour. However the path the smart Ed is taking is not as safe, as flying Darkballs come zooming in and aiming straight at the Eds, but Ed steps in by using his Thundara to shock the Darkballs down.

The giant Darkside begins to make its way over to the Eds and Double D quickly pulls the Eds away from the approaching giant, preventing an encounter. However, the giant notices the fleeing boys all the way down on the barren streets, and the Heartless slams its fist down into the ground, creating a black puddle of shadows and several smaller Heartless. Eddy turns around to notice the wave of Shadows heading straight towards the Eds and he prepares to defend the trio by using his shield to knock

"Eddy, Ed, I see the exit!" screamed Double D.

The two boys in question look to where their friend wants them to see, and sure enough there is a sphere of light similar to the one at the shrine. Double D puts more thrust into the engine and speeds off down the road to make it towards the glowing sphere. However, the barricade forms and the Darkside looming high above, which is putting a dent into the boys' escape plans. The Darkside starts destroying the buildings surrounding the Eds and Double D tries to outmaneuver the debris, but one large chunk is right above them and is too large for the boys to escape…

… That is until the Powerpuff Girls come swooping in and smashes through the chunk of building, obliterating the piece into smaller debris and comes raining down on the Eds. The three boys let out a sigh of relief as they now know they are not going to be crushed, but they fail to notice a piece of building that is now blocking their path. However Double D sees an opening for the Eds to use and he revs the engine some more as the hovercycle rockets down the street, passing Heartless and fallen pieces of debris as the bike hits the blockage and launches high above the Heartless barricade. Flying above the barricade, the Eds focus their attention on the glowing sphere as Eddy looks back to see the superhero girls heading towards the giant, all before his vision goes white.

The Eds immediately find themselves back inside of the Void and traveling out of the shrine. Eddy looks out to notice that the Pirate Ship is still on their tail and several cannons are aiming straight at the boys. One of these cannons launches a very large ball of steel out right at the small Ed and misses him by a good few feet, only to hit the stone pathway and cutting the Eds off from returning to their Gummi ship. Eddy notices that their path is beginning to fall and he warns Double D that they are going to fall if he does not speed the hovercycle up.

The Pirate Ship continues to fire its cannons at the three Eds as the hovercycle nears the second shrine. Ed looks over to the Pirate Ship and sees if he can use any of his magic on the giant Heartless, but even his new Fira is not singeing the wooden hull of the giant ship. The Pirate Ship begins to lower its jaw in another attempt to swallow the Eds into the hull, but Double D revs the engine up and speeds away as the Heartless ship charges forward and bites down on the stone bridge. More and more of the bridge begins to fall down into the black abyss below and some down on the Pirate ship, leaving the Eds only to keep heading straight and into the next shrine.

OOO

When the flare clears from their eyes, the Eds check around to find themselves back in the past, only by a few years as they notice the same buildings of Washington, D.C. passing right by them in a blur. Double D slows the hovercycle down as the Ed rounds the same corner that the insane superhero took in order to save his city. However, the Eds cannot find Freakazoid on the street, as they believe he is busy doing something stupid or rescuing the capitol city from certain destruction.

In the distance is a very similar appearance to what is happening in Townsville, but only on a smaller scale and there is a giant robot instead of a Darkside. Another difference is that the destruction is kept to a minimum, but the Eds are only in one part of the city that has yet to encounter a large amount of Heartless. Deciding on looking for the same glowing sphere as their exit, Double D got their ride up to speed and zipping down the streets to go through another maze of buildings and empty streets.

"Man, what is happening to these worlds?" asked Eddy. "Is this all we're going to see when we head back to these worlds?"

"I hope not Eddy," replied Double D. "Let's just hope that these events we are seeing are separate occurrences and possibly not link to Jib."

"Never underestimate the power that is Kingdom Hearts," mumbled Ed's hat. "If the Destroyer gets close to the scared place, then these events we are seeing will likely be the end to the human society and the birth of a new generation."

"If that's the case, we need to hurry!" stated Double D. "I'm not sure if the other worlds are going to be like this, but we need to get through these worlds and hopefully get rid of that Pirate Ship for good."

"Hey, how about we raid the Pirate Ship and claim it as our own?" pitched Ed.

"And how are we going to do that?" asked Eddy. "There's no way that we can take on possibly thousands of Heartless all for a giant ship that's also a freaking Heartless!"

"Well right now let's not worry about the Pirate Ship at the moment," Double D responded. "We can think out a plan on how to defeat it, or capturing it, when we are exploring the other worlds and getting closer to the center of the Void."

With that set in stone, Double D focuses back on the open road and steers the Eds towards the area of Washington, D.C. where the city's famous monuments rest. This particular area is the current hotspot where the fighting is taking place, and as soon the Eds got closer to the battlefield they can feel the intense flames of war fires burning in the distance. The boys notice towering clouds of smoke sailing up into the red skies, and in one of those clouds are some constant flares of white lightning, probably the zipping body of Freakazoid moving through this cloud.

Ed looks towards the giant robot that is devastating the capitol and he notices something familiar about this robot. Despite being so far away, the tall Ed recognizes the pilot of the robot to be the Lobe, as his brainy-pink head is sticking out on the gunmetal black that is making up the robot. The brain pilot has his eyes on the cloud with the lightning, controlling the arms to try to grab that moving bolt of lightning, all while keeping his eyes off of the incoming Ed boys.

"Double D, is all of this real?" asked Ed.

"Like we said Ed, I don't know," replied Double D. "If you're asking if this is nothing more of a vision or are we really in Washington, D.C. If we are really feeling the flames in this scene, then we really have traveled to a war-torn city."

"Double D, can you please focus on the road?" offered Eddy. "If what you're saying is true, then can you at least avoid hitting those Heartless?"

The smart Ed looks in front of him to notice several small Heartless heading right towards the hovercycle. Double D immediately starts weaving through the numbers, causing Eddy to swing wildly and smashing through the Heartless with his shield. Once the driver straightens himself out, he notices the robot reaching into the cloud of smoke and a bright burst of lightning shocking the arm. The Lobe pulls back the arm as he watches the lightning coming right at him a big burst and covering the giant robot with millions of jumping static electrical bolts.

The robot begins to shut down from overloading on the large amount of electricity and backs into one of the monuments. The Lobe tries to recover to the best of his effort, grabbing onto the falling monument with what he has left and swings it at Freakazoid, but only to swing at nothing. The Eds are wondering what is going on until they notice the blue superhero on the ground and way far ahead of them, running as fast as he can to not only avoid the failing robot, but to find a way to stop the robot for good.

The boys spot the exit in the distance, out in a grassy field and in the middle of the battlefield. Ignoring the failing robot on the verge of collapse, the Eds make their way to the exit, passing by Heartless and moving away from Freakazoid. Along the way, the boys came into contact with a whole slew of villains the trio has yet to encounter on this world, but they ignore this group as the villains are focusing their attention on the running blue superhero. As they Eds got closer to the exit, there is one villain that has their eyes on them and she breaks free from the group to attack the trio.

The woman the Eds have previously met begins to throw some snake Heartless at the hovercycle in an attempt to slow the trio. Double D dodges a few of these snakes as Ed uses his magic to destroy the snakes. The snake woman does her best in blocking the Eds' way, but one piece of debris helps the Eds by launching them over the woman and aiming straight at the exit, which envelops the boys and causes the trio to leave the fight. The snake woman lets out an irritated growl as she notices a shadow right above her and she escapes, just as the giant robot begins to fall down to the earth.

OOO

With an unbearable scorching sun blanketing the barren desert scene with its high heated rays, the Eds' vision is tainted with the sight of water vapor evaporating from the road. The boys find themselves on an open stretch of road out in the desert world of Nowhere and so far they are nowhere close to the home of the pink scared dog. Riding on in the blistering heat, Ed's hat aims up and casts Blizzard down on the two riding Eds, as Eddy takes his goggles and puts them over his eyes, shielding him from the bright light.

"Well this isn't bad," said Double D optimistically. "So far this is a bit of a change of pace to having two back-to-back cities in a war against the Heartless."

"Yeah, but it's hot!" whined Ed, his voice getting dry.

"It does seem rather unusually hot around here," the smart Ed muttered. "It sure wasn't this hot when we were here. Maybe this is considered to be the drought season of the year on this world."

"I doubt that," called Eddy. "This place is a desert! There's not a single drop of water to find! It isn't like there's going to be any rain anytime soon!"

"Uh, what about a tsunami?" wondered Normadomus.

The medium Ed cuts the engine and slows the hovercycle to a halt as the three boys notice in the horizon a small wave heading right towards them. The trio wipes their eyes to make sure that this is no mirage and they check the horizon to see that this wave is getting bigger and bigger. In the silence, there is the sound of the wave crashing echoing far away, and they begin to question whether or not they are really losing their minds or this incoming wave is for real.

Double D got the engine back to life and spins the hovercycle in the opposite direction, hoping to get away from the incoming wave. Just as the bike begins to hit the top speed, the wave begins to catch up on the Eds and they look behind them to realize the giant size of this tsunami. Double D revs the engine some more to get some distance between the boys and the fast-moving wave, but as the seconds pass the wave is getting closer and closer, inching ever so close in an attempt to drown the trio.

As they are escaping, Eddy hears some screaming right behind him and he looks up onto the wave to notice a small, yet recognizable, person. Up on a surfboard screaming at the top of his lungs is the small pink dog named Courage, holding onto his master Muriel as the little dog is surfing on for their dear lives. There are no signs of Eustace on the surfboard, meaning he has not come back to the farmhouse after being tossed by the Prison Keeper. Eddy cannot see anyone else on the wave, so that only leaves the little dog that could and his master surfing for their life as the Eds try to outrace their impending deaths.

"How in the world is this even possible?" stated Double D. "There's no logical explanation for a tsunami made of sand to even make an attempt to move across the ground like this!"

"Says everything that's been going on in the past two worlds!" replied Eddy. "It's bad enough to be running into Heartless in a place like the Void, but running into a wave made out of sand? Whoever made this universe is a sick, sick man!"

"Or woman!" stated Ed.

"Let's just focus on outrunning this tsunami!" stated Ed's hat.

Doing so, Double D got the hovercycle running faster as the trio speeds down the hot stretch of highway. With the sun beating down onto the boys and the looming wave of sand, the Eds have a lot going on for them as they are trying to find the exit to this world. The roar of the wave is deafening, but the Eds can hear the screams coming from Courage and the roar of the engine as Double D spies a town looming over the horizon and speeds towards safety. Hopefully there will be the exit waiting for them in the middle of the town, since the trio does not want to go crashing into the wall of sand and start swimming for the supposed exit.

With only a minute or so of waiting to get to this town, Eddy begins to feel the sand dripping into his shirt and irritating his skin. He looks behind him that the wave is just in reaching limits of the Ed, and his mind is warning him of potentially crashing and also his itchy back. Keeping one hand the yo-yo's string, the small Ed reaches behind him and starts rubbing out the sand that has gotten into his clothes, all while keeping his balance to prevent riding up on the sand wave and potentially drowning a sandy burial for the greedy boy.

Double D puts some more thrust into the engine, pulling Eddy away from the tsunami as the Eds finally reach the outskirts of the town. As the hovercycle enters the town, the sand tsunami comes to a slow halt as the wave hits the sides of the buildings and, all before picking up speed and starts consuming the buildings. The buildings gave the Eds some time to put a large gap between them and allowing them to go searching for the exit, which is waiting for them on the opposite of town.

A dark shadow blankets on top of the Ed boys and they look up to notice the tsunami is now catching up to them again. The wave is causing people to go into a panic and trying to flee the approaching disaster, but the fast moving wave is swallowing buildings and people up as only five people are really escaping the destruction. With only seconds of waiting, the Eds grit their teeth as they inch closer and closer to the exit and the wave does the exact same thing to the trio. Then the Eds reach their target and are quickly enveloped by the light, dodging their sandy death as the tsunami sweeps through the town, taking with it several residents and their businesses.

"Wat wave yu're golin', yu full," the Asian punk shouted in the muffling sands.

OOO

The sound of gunfire and metal crashing together is echoing through the silent streets of a not-so-peaceful suburb neighborhood. The Eds quickly enter the streets of the same neighborhood that they saw the giant blue robot called Megas and they look in the distance to find the same robot facing off against several green mechs being controlled by the same alien race Coop previous fought. The Eds are relieved that they are not going to be facing off against an army of savage aliens in mech suits, as Coop will be distracting the robots while the Eds search for the next exit point.

However, they notice that Megas is having a hard time standing up against this wave of enemies. One mech delivers a heavy punch to the blue robot's chest, causing Megas to go flying back and destroying several houses before catching itself and coming to a complete stop. The blue mech is standing in front of a billboard advertising for a local channel, and Megas lifts the billboard from the ground to use the giant sign to clear through the large numbers of robots surrounding the area.

On the ground, the Eds can see the Heartless that the robots fail to notice when they fight. These Heartless are roaming about in the bright daylight, aware that there is a robot fight going above them and they try to avoid getting squish by the mechs' feet. None of the Heartless notice the Eds roaming the streets, as the boys can see that the Heartless want to participate in the fight and take down the towering robots. Grateful that they are not going to fight both the robots and the Heartless, the Eds focus their attention on finding the exit when they notice something off in the skies.

"What is that black cloud in the sky?" asked Ed.

High above in the atmosphere, a dark oval mass is looming ominously among the clouds, slowly moving closer to the ground and growing ever so bigger by the minute. "I think that's some sort of anomaly," said Normadomus. "I'm not sure if that's true but if it has to do with the wars that are going on and the natural disasters on the other worlds."

"So… there's some sort of anomaly that forms when someone is getting close to Kingdom Hearts?" asked Double D, unsure by this response.

"I'm not one hundred percent certain, with what no one has ever reached Kingdom Hearts, but my guess is that this must be a safety precaution in preventing more people like the Destroyer of Light in exploring the Void to its deepest depths. I've never read any like this in any of my books but if what I'm guessing turns out to be true, we're going to find out the ugly truth in possibly… an hour or so."

"But that thing is going to destroy the universe!" Ed yelled.

"Look, it's hard to know what's really going on since this is the first time anything like this is happening, so we really need to get moving in not only preventing an unstoppable being from rising, but an universe-destroying anomaly!" Ed's hat proclaimed.

Vent on finding the exit as fast as possible, Double D got their ride going as fast as they can, zipping through the streets around Heartless and towering mechs. Once again weaving through the streets, the smart Ed got the Eds on the lookout for the glowing sphere as Megas takes a step back from blocking one attack, prompting the boys to take a detour down one street. The road the Eds ended up on turns out being a dead-end and Double D spins the hovercycle around, going down the opposite street and heading straight into the giant robot fight.

Coop got Megas working on its feet against some green mechs, using either the billboard or some of its weapons hidden underneath its armor. As one mech goes down another takes its place, making Megas lose a certain amount of energy until Coop can feel his controls locking up on him. The pilots grits his teeth in anger as he tries to keep his robot online as long as possible, as he looks in the distance to find the leader of these mechs, Gorrath, in his personal mech, waiting patiently as Megas duels all of the alien leader's lower-ranking mooks.

"Oh how I waited for this day to come," Gorrath hisses. "In a matter of minutes, MEGAS will be subdued by my many men and I will finally claim that piece of scrap metal you call a robot as my own. Once I redesigned MEGAS to my configurations, I will claim this planet as my own and make sure that no puny humans shall resist my incoming army!"

"I'm not going to let you lay one finger on Megas, especially not after you calling it 'scrap metal!'" Coop barked, getting Megas ready for a fight.

The pilot slams down on the gas pedal to allow Megas' engine to roar all over the neighborhood, shocking the driving Ed and causing him to lose his balance. The exhaust pipes are flaring from burning fuel and hatred, and Coop presses up on his game controller to launch his robot flying towards Gorrath, sweeping through the lower ranks with the billboard before tossing the weapon to the side. Megas forms a fist in one hand and, places a foot into the ground and gets one good twists, starts to get into a spin as the fist flies towards Gorrath's mech, smashing hard to cause the robot to be lifted up from its feet and fly in the opposite direction.

The billboard crashes down where the Eds are driving and they quickly dodge the large metal pole as Double D notices the sign forming a ramp. Getting the speed, the hovercycle takes off down the street before hitting the billboard and riding up to launch off and head straight for the glowing sphere the Eds fail to notice. Landing hard on the streets, the boys pass by Heartless as the shadows of the two fighting mechs are cast down onto the hovercycle, only for the sphere to reach out and envelop the trio. Once the Eds are gone, Megas opens up its armor and takes out several heavy artilleries, locking the barrels onto Gorrath, and unleashes a bullet hell to knock the robot off its feet and fall down onto the exit.

As the Eds leave the shrine, they barely miss the Pirate Ship eating them whole, as the giant ship crashes through the shrine and destroying the stone building. Several stones making up the path begin to fall into the abyss below, getting Eddy on the edge to falling to his doom. With the Pirate Ship looming right behind them, Double D got on the move by speeding their ride up to escape falling into the black abyss below and also ending up inside of the Pirate Ship.

"Leave us alone, you hunk of scrap wood!" the small Ed shouted.

The Heartless lets out a roar at the Eds as several cannons lock onto the Ed boys and unleash a barrage of cannonballs down on the stone path. Flying stones are making Double D to move around on the narrow path, boarding falling off and diving into the darkness, all while trying not to get batter by the flying stone bricks. The Pirate Ship lowers itself and opens its metal jaw to start eating away at the path, similar to when the Eds were being chased by the sand tsunami. This does not last long as Double D approaches the next shrine and drives the Eds through the glowing sphere, disappearing from the Pirate Ship as the Heartless ship stops its chomping and begins the waiting game.

OOO

Despite being on a hovercycle, the Eds find themselves breezing through the colorful and maze-like hallways of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. With no room to work with in dodging any incoming Heartless that comes their way, Ed and Eddy prepare themselves for a fight to come. While waiting for an attack and going through the many hallways, the whole building begins to shake violently before quieting down, prompting the Eds to wonder what is happening on this world.

"Was that an earthquake?" asked Eddy.

"I don't think that was an earthquake Eddy," replied Double D.

Up ahead of the Eds is a growing puddle of water up ahead at one intersection and an imaginary friend is sliding down the slippery floor. The smart Ed brings the hovercycle to a stop as the boys can hear the sound of rushing water down the hallway and they quickly registers that as the source of the building rumbling. Turning the hovercycle around, Double D takes off in the opposite direction to get away from the incoming water, as the hallway-filling blast rockets down the intersection and begins filling up the path the boys are taking.

Eddy looks behind him to notice that there are some Heartless they saw on Stormalong Harbor, swimming inside the moving wall of water and they are looking at the Eds ready to skewer. The small Ed begins to ride up onto the water and swiftly dodges the spears in the Heartless' hands, occasionally sliding to the walls to grind his shield against the surface. The Ed not only dodges the stab of the Heartless, but some of the items lining against the walls, until Double D makes a sharp turn to his left and brought Eddy smacking against the intersection's wall, peeling him away as the hovercycle drives off down the hallway.

"Hey, warn me when you're going to steer!" the small Ed shouted.

"I'm sorry Ed but I did," the medium Ed replied. "You should be focusing up ahead instead of trying to do fancy tricks back there."

"I was dealing with some Heartless!" Eddy barked.

Before the small Ed can check to see if the Heartless are still following the boys, the hovercycle begins to head down a flight of stairs and got the boys rocking. They quickly reach the bottom of the stairs in no time, only to then be hit by a wall of water and knocking the three off of the hovercycle. In the rush, Double D keeps a strong grip on the handle as the other two Eds float nearby and the trio heads down the hallway to follow the current.

As the Eds are zipping by doors after doors, a hidden trap door opens from below and the three Eds are sent down through the hole, as the momentum is quickly picking up and everything to the Ed is becoming a rush. In the moving water stream, the boys dodge incoming objects and imaginary friends as they move through the maze to get to wherever the water is taking them. Soon they burst through a door and enter a long black room, getting the feeling that they are heading straight up, and the boys fly out of one of the chimneys, along with a few items from the hallways.

"This house is alive!" shouted Eddy, as the Eds hit their peak and head back towards earth.

The Eds strangely fit themselves through one of the chimneys and plummet down to where the fireplace is, bursting out from the fall in a cloud of soot, as the trio find themselves back riding on the hovercycle and in some imaginary friend's room. The boys quickly leave the room through the door and they head on down the hallway, all while trying to figure out what just happened to them.

"How on Earth is that even possible?" stated Double D. "There's no scientific explanation to how we can move about like that!"

"It's magic, we don't have to explain it," replied Ed.

"Wow Ed, that's the last thing I want to hear out of a comic nerd like you," Eddy deadpans.

"I rather believe Eddy's statement that this house is a living being," the smart Ed commented.

The sound of rushing water is right behind them and Double D increases the speed as the Eds rocket down the hallway and jumping over a staircase. The trio carefully dodge hitting their heads against the ceiling as Double D leans the hovercycle to make a sharp turn, prompting the vehicle and Eddy to ride against the walls before hitting the floor hard. The wall of water splashes against the wall and begins to fill the intersection, chasing after the Eds in an attempt to swallow the boys back up again.

The Ed boys begin to recall being down this hallway when they were first here, remembering that this is the hallway that leads to the foyer of the building. Using this knowledge, the boys take off down the hallway and wait to see if they are on the right track in getting out of this world. As they suspect, they are approaching the staircase that leads to the foyer, and waiting for them at the door is the glowing exit. Rounding the stairs, the hovercycle flies through the air, with the water right behind them, and the Eds dive down into the sphere to head back into the Void.

The rushing water continues its spread throughout the house, filling up every room on the first floor and trapping everyone in the liquid. The whole house begins to buckle under the pressure from the large amount of water filling it up, until every window and doors burst and the water pours out onto the front yard. Every item and person that was victim of the flood flow out from the building and spill across the now wet lawn as everyone gasps for air and float on top of the water.

The last person to come out from the building is a blob of blue and it is rather happy with the flooding of the boarding home. It slides down the stairs as if it was on a water slide and it stands up to happily celebrate going on the wildest ride it has ever been on, all before coming to a stop as it notices hundreds of angry stares glaring at the blob. The blue mass puts on a sheepish smile as it heads back up the stairs and rushes inside, all to hopefully escape its impending punishment.

"BLOOAGARD Q. KAZOO!" screamed the redhead Frankie.

OOO

As the brightness begins to dim, the Eds look up to notice that there is a giant claw heading right down on top of them. Double D quickly got the hovercycle out of the way as the claw smashes down into the asphalt, and the Eds look up to notice that they are underneath a giant walking robot. The boys look around their setting to notice that they are in Bellwood, a rather peaceful town now under fire by this destructive machine, and the trio check their surroundings to see another war is taking place on this world, much like what was happening in Townsville and Washington, D.C.

"OK, so we got a normal Heartless war, another Heartless war with a supervillain leading them," Eddy pointed out, "so what's different with this one?"

"I believe this is less about Heartless and more about aliens,"

Sure enough, there are some gray aircrafts flying through the air that are nothing like the planes the boys have seen. These aircrafts are firing off energy blasts at the number of the giant robots that are roaming about, and the Eds can see these ships are having a hard time against these machines. There is a roar of a jet right above the boys, and the Eds look up to notice a green jet flying above the action, and underneath a small hatch opens up. Out from the hatch is a body wearing green and the jet flies off, as the body is engulf in a green light and a large dinosaur-like being emerges from the light.

"Cool, we're in a war with the worlds!" Ed proclaimed happily.

"Just be on the lookout for a very hammy actor and a little blonde girl," said Eddy, looking around doing so.

"Hang on gentlemen," said Double D. "Did any of you recognize that green glow up in the sky?"

"Yeah I saw that," answered the small Ed. "Was that Ben and did he get himself a new alien?"

"I think this may be a different Ben," the smart Ed replied. "He kind of looks older, but it's hard to tell since it was a brief moment and he was high up in the air."

"So once we are done, can we go and ask that dinosaur if he really is Ben?" asked Ed.

"Ed, you can tell it's Ben by that dial on that dinosaur's chest," deadpans Eddy. "It's not hard to figure that out since he is the only one with a watch that can turns him into any alien of his choice."

"Say, do any of you find this to be a little weird considering that we have haven't set a foot on this world in a few months, and then somehow you have possibly a full grown boy using a whole new selection of aliens at his disposal?" wondered Normadomus.

"Then what we are seeing is the future?" asked Double D.

"The only way to find out is ask the alien himself," the hat replied, "although we should focus on finding the exit first."

"Void ahead!" Ed called out.

Hanging up in the sky is the same void that the boys saw back in Jersey City, emitting the same ominous feeling from the black mass and is now bigger from when the Eds first saw it. They can see some lightning jumping out from the circling mass, and the boys can feel a sickening feeling deep within them that this anomaly is going to be a threat to not only this world, but to the entire universe. As the Eds are riding through the town, they notice that no one is looking up into the sky and spot out this growing mass, including the giant dinosaur, meaning that everyone is focus on winning a war instead of an anomaly that will destroy their worlds.

"In all of my life I will never suspect this to be coming true," said Ed's hat. "To think I was done with the Seeing Real Epidemic, but now there are disasters and wars breaking out all over the universe because of what's happening in this void? Is this really payback for all of the fighting in the past war?"

"Will you calm down?" asked Double D. "At this point we don't know if this is real or not, despite that we are taking part of the disasters and wars that are going on now, but what if this is the Void testing us to see if we are ready for the challenge ahead."

"Double D, look out!" shouted both Ed and Eddy.

The medium Ed looks in front of him and realizes that he is trying towards another one of the giant robots. He quickly throws the bike into a sharp turn and got the trio out of harm's way, as the robot slams its claw foot into the asphalt and head towards the dinosaur. Now heading away from the fight, Double D and the others look around for their exit, seeking out the glowing sphere in all of the carnage. Finding the shiny sphere floating in the middle of an intersection, the Eds zip down the torn street to get out of this war.

Before the Eds can reach the sphere, the dinosaur steps back and lands on top of the exit, squishing the sphere as the alien switches from a giant to something smaller: a black rock being with a singular and red crystals sticking out of its body. The rock being runs towards the machine it was previously fight and the Eds notice that the exit is still intact. Riding up to the exit, the sphere begins to glow and envelops the Eds, sending the boys back to outrun the Pirate Ship and to head towards the next world.

OOO

Unlike some of the other worlds the boys have been visiting, as soon they materialize on the next world they are greeted with a blast of cool air. This chilling draft is mix in with an ominous, dark presence as the hovercycle rides on through barren, empty streets of a destroyed city. The Ed boys check around to see that they are not part of some war, but rather the aftermath of one as signs of a struggle are present everywhere that they look. From looking around their setting, the boys can tell they are back in Jump City, but they are getting the feeling that they are not going to be meeting up with the Titans.

Double D pulls out his communicator and got the device on so he can try contacting the Titans to see if they are all right. After waiting for a few minutes, he closes the communicator and pockets it, now knowing that the team that protects this city is not going to help the Eds out. "Well my friends, it seems we are too late here," the medium Ed replied grimly. "Whatever happened here has put an end to the Titans."

"So does this mean we can't save anyone here?" asked Eddy. "There's got to be someone within this wreck, even those Titans."

"We can take a look around to see if we can find someone to explain what happened here, but we do need to keep moving if we want to get closer to the end," Double D answered.

As the hovercycle drives by potholes made naturally and artificially, the Ed boys can see that these buildings also contain holes made by people and artillery of varying sizes. Along with these holes are scratch marks made by possibly Heartless, toppled stone columns, shattered glass windows, signs split in half and dangling by a few nails and screws, and hinged doors swinging lightly in the chilling breeze. In the shadows the Eds can see a few Heartless hiding along the alleyways' walls, hiding from being spotted by any people with the power to stop these hungry creatures.

Ed looks up high into the sky to notice a few people are flying above the ruins, obviously from their clothing that they are superheroes and Ed puts a smile on his face. He tries to call out to the heroes above but none of them can hear his cries, as they continue on in their search for something. Ed feels disappointed that he is not meeting more superheroes, but there is that part of him that is happy that he is seeing more despite the grim times. As his eyes continue to follow the superheroes, the tall Ed's sight begins to focus down until he spies a rather tall gray object reaching up into the red skies.

"Why is Abraham Lincoln sitting here in the ruins?" wondered Ed.

"Ed, that's not Abraham Lincoln," answered Double D.

The hovercycle comes to a full stop and the Eds look up towards a towering statue made out of stone. The man portrayed in the statue is sitting down in a throne, and the boys can see something sinister and evil from looking at this stone man. From the details carved in the stone, the man is wearing a full body suit with some armor and pouches holding hidden weapons, and covering his face is a two-sided mask with only one slot for the eye. The pose for the statue is the man propping his head onto his right fist, staring out with an evil glare as the Eds begin to feel weak from staring into the statue's single eye.

"Who… Who is on earth is this man?" muttered the smart Ed.

"… Slade," hissed a low, sickly voice.

The boys tilt their heads towards the source of the voice, only to find a clothed mass heading right towards them. This mass then reveals itself to be Robin, injured everywhere on his body and his costume torn, and the Eds got themselves off of the hovercycle to rush over to help the injured hero. Robin limps over to where the Eds are and starts to fall over and Double D reaches out to catch the teen, as the boy takes out a potion bottle and got it open to feed the liquid Robin.

"Robin, are you all right?" asked Double D worriedly.

The teen hero lets out a heavy cough, startling the others before settling back down. "Yeah… I feel a little better after drinking that," he replied. "Thanks for coming… Ed boys."

"What the heck happened here?" stated Eddy. "It looks like you guys are out of a disaster movie!"

"This was all Slade's doing," Robin replied, receiving some confusion from the others. "Slade used to be a former terrorist we used to chase back when he was alive. He had these plans to take over the city using various criminals, even a few of us Titans, but in the end he died and there was some peace… that was until Raven's father had to step in and brought the man back to life."

"So is this Slade guy a zombie?" asked Ed with some enthusiasm.

"No, he wasn't a zombie. He was fully human and he even made a hallucinogen that made me believe that Slade was really here, but all of this time he was playing the waiting game… waiting for the right moment to come back and plunge the city into eternal darkness."

"By the looks of it, he wasn't alone in his conquest," said Double D. "He must have used the Heartless in his plans and by the looks of the ruins, he has succeed very well. These Heartless must have been some strong creatures to create scratch marks like these."

"But the Heartless that Slade use weren't the same we have seen before," replied Robin. "These Heartless appear to be a fusion of some sort… like when we got trapped inside of Mad Mumbo's insane plot to take over the city. These Heartless appeared to be more deadly, as if they were combined with another being in general."

"And believe me, we're still trying to recover from that experience," grumbled Eddy, before noticing the exit in his sight. The small Ed heads up to Double D and mentions to him about the exit, telling him that they need to keep on moving. "Well Robin, we better get going," said Double D. "I'm not certain that we're going to be back, but we'll do anything in our power to help you and any survivors that are still alive."

"Thank you… Ed boys," replied the teen hero.

Double D and the others head over to the hovercycle and they got themselves ready for the ride ahead, making a full circle before speeding off to the exit. The torn Robin watches the Eds head off into the exit as he looks up into the sky to find the dark anomaly lingering high above the skyline, waiting for whatever this anomaly is planning and slowly growing with each tick of the clock.

OOO

With no sea of Heartless chasing them this time around, the Eds breeze down the same street that they first arrive on the E.V.O. Earth. As the boys check behind to double sure they are not being follow, they notice that the city is also in ruins but they know that the cause of this is from the E.V.O.s that call this world home. The variety of claw marks, craters and toppled buildings show that these creatures are stronger than the Heartless, but knowing that an entire world is infected with the same disease brought shivers down the boys' spines upon seeing the damage here.

Now getting a good look at their surroundings, the hovercycle revs up to continue on to find the next exit. As the Eds head down the street, they notice some E.V.O.s coming from behind a damaged building, and leading the E.V.O.s is the man with a bionic arm called Van Kliess. The man is sitting on top of a tusked beast with a thick, wiry white mane, sitting tall and proud as he leads his army from behind. He hears the sound of the hovercycle getting closer, and he raises his bionic arm up to halt the march as the villain focuses his attention on the approaching Ed boys.

"Well, well, look who decided to show up," the man stated. "It's those troublesome boys who paired up with Providence. Apparently they have decided to show up at just the right moment… it's about time that I need to get this built up anger on against that pestering Nobody."

"**Master, do you want me to lead the assault against these boys?**" asked the mechanical Biowulf.

"No… I rather lead these fine E.V.O.s against these boys just to show that no one dare defies Van Kliess," the man retorted, taking a few beasts and leading them to the boys.

The Eds comes to a stop as they notice the incoming wave of E.V.O.s heading towards them, and they got themselves heading off in the opposite direction of the wave. Van Kliess orders some smaller E.V.O.s to take on the Ed boys, leaping off the building and the pavement to reach the Eds. Eddy and Ed kept their eyes on the incoming creatures, preparing their attacks as the E.V.O.s quickly reach the Eds and Eddy jumps up to attack the monsters.

Double D got the hovercycle running through another stone maze, this time leading a wave of mutated people through a city in ruins. Small, agile E.V.O.s leap across the ground and buildings to try to take down the Eds, but the smart Ed uses his driving skills to outmaneuver these beasts. Some winged E.V.O.s fly in from above and swoop in to strike the boys with their talons, and the wizards use their magic to stop these E.V.O.s. One mutant snakes around one building and watches the action from above, keeping a lock-on gaze on the Eds as the E.V.O. begins to come up with a plan of attack.

Van Kliess leads his army down a parallel street in adjacent to the Eds, watching them from afar as his followers bombard the Ed boys. Eddy and Ed try to put a stop to these creatures, but the E.V.O.s are stronger than regular Heartless and they constantly replace each of the fallen creatures. Double D notices the exit waiting for them at the end of the street, and the Ed got the hovercycle running straight for the exit point at faster pace. Outrunning the E.V.O.s, the Eds eventually are running straight for Van Kliess, who is waiting for them in the middle of an intersection with a barricade ready to stop the Eds, but Double D weaves through the E.V.O.s as the trio begins to make their way out of the world.

"Why you're leaving so soon?" asked the villain. "It feels like we haven't really got to know each other that well, other than that one encounter at Providence."

"Sorry, but we got a whole universe to save," replied Eddy, giving the man a salute.

"The universe can wait boys; we got plenty of time here. Now all I have to do is deliver the final blow and soon Providence will be next!"

Van Kliess takes his bionic arm and stretches it out to the Eds, the needle on his fingers extended out to inject his power into the boys. As the arm draws near, a piece of rubble slams down onto the arm and cuts the stretching off as the boys flee from the world through the exit. Van Kliess looks up to where the shot came from, only to find a faint glimpse of a large cannon aiming right at his arm and what appears to be the Hispanic agent of Providence Rex. The teen has a wide smile on his face as his cannon morphs back down into his arm, as white ships begin to fill up the sky and agents of Providence surrounds the E.V.O.s.

As the Eds leave the shrine, the Pirate Ship roars to life and starts its pursuit on the Eds boys once again. This time, the Eds have something up their sleeve as they travel along the stone path leading to the next world. Ed decides on using some of his magic in another attempt to slow the ship, using his Fira spell again, and he got his staff ready for the magic spell. Just as he is about to launch the spell, the Pirate Ship backs away from the pathway and charges right for the Eds, taking a large portion of the bridge and rocking the Eds all over the place.

Once regaining their balance, Ed takes his staff and swings the fireball at the Heartless ship. However, instead of a soul-like fireball, a stream of fire flies through the air that eventually starts arching up and creating a giant face in the fire. The attack hits the Pirate Ship dead on, catching the Heartless on fire and reeling back from the intense heat and pain. The Pirate Ship lets out a roar in anger, as Heartless on the deck hurry to deal with the flames and unload a storm of cannonballs down on the pathway.

The hail of black steel pellets the ground in a fury, causing the Eds to quickly weave through the rain to prevent getting hit. Eddy decides to let go of the string and ride along the edge of the pathway, since he is being flailed about, and the small Ed occasionally moves towards the middle to dodge the cannonballs hitting the edge. The Pirate Ship lets out another roar as the cannons continue to fire off every single cannonball the Heartless have, just as the Eds enter the next shrine and riddle the stone shrine in holes.

OOO

"All right, we got that ship on the run now!" stated Eddy excitedly.

"I got to say Ed, you're getting better with your magic there," commented Double D. "It appears that you may have some Limit Breaks after all."

"Please don't encourage the boy," whispered Normadomus. "Do you really want to end up in one of his inevitable backfires if he does pull off one of those Breaks in the first place?"

"I wonder what else I can do…" pondered the tall Ed, thinking up on how he can use his other spells in destructive Limit Breaks.

"Where are we anyway?" the small Ed asked, looking around his setting.

Breaking away from their conversation, the trio takes a good look around their setting to notice that they are back in the port town of Stormalong Harbor. The town itself is in fair shape, despite there is a torrential rainstorm pounding down on the Eds and the waves are reaching up as high as the one-story buildings. Bright streaks of lightning leap across the skies, leaving echoing loud bursts of thunder as the hovercycle rides on through the rain to seek out the next exit and hopefully get out before any of the residents spot the trio.

Sadly, luck is not on their side as they came across a group of people moving through the wall of water, trying to help the other residents out during the storm. The Eds come to a screeching halt as the group shift their attention to the approaching Eds, and in their minds ring of the destructive memories that the boys brought to the city. The group quickly turns into an angry mob as the smart Ed got the hovercycle back to life and spinning in the opposite direction, creating a cloud of water to blind the locals.

The Eds heads off down the wooden planking to escape the mob chasing right behind them, as all of these people are running through a blinding wall of rain through a dark city. The medium Ed can barely see that he is leading the Eds to the docks, meaning that they are running out of room to escape, but he is getting the feeling that the exit lies somewhere out at sea. Revving up the engine, the Eds zoom on down the dock to launch off the platform and take to the skies as the hovercycle starts to morph into its flying state.

The angry mob comes to a stop and watches the Eds head off into the rain, as Eddy lands on top of the water and starts surfing across the rising waves, and Double D pilots the hovercycle above the said waves in search of the exit. As the boys are heading out farther away from Stormalong Harbor, there is the sound of a booming roar echoing out along with the thunder, and the Eds can hear the muffled screams coming from back at the dock. As the hovercycle continues to fly further away, the Eds begin to understand why these people are screaming at the top of their lungs.

In the rain lies the shadow of a towering beast of some sort, standing as tall as the Heartless the Eds previously fought. This beast turns out to be an octopus, bearing eight long tentacles, and the boys can see some Heartless fish coming out of the water. A few of the tentacles reach out and grab onto these Heartless, wrapping around the tiny beings as the octopus then launches the Heartless at the Eds and at Stormalong Harbor. When the Eds got close, they notice that this octopus has seen better days, with a worn out face, an eye-patch covering its left eye, and a shipwrecked ship being worn like a hat on top of this beast's head.

"What on Earth is this thing?" stated Double D in a panic.

"It's that giant squid that fought against the mega shark!" answered Ed.

"Wrong species, Ed!" cried the smart Ed, as he quickly twists the handle and swings the hovercycle to get the Eds away from the giant octopus.

The giant registers the trio before it and the octopus starts to react by reaching out and grabbing at the boys. Eddy dives down into water and through the waves to escape the incoming tentacles, as Ed takes his staff and uses Thundara on the giant to back the creature away. The electrical current flows throughout the surrounding area, shocking a few of the Heartless, as the octopus quickly recovers from the blow and reaches into the water to grab these Heartless to fling at the Eds.

As the Eds are flying back to Stormalong Harbor, it dawns onto Double D that they are leading a destructive creature onto a defenseless town. Now coming up with a decision to improving their reputation, the Ed begins to calculate a strategy that will help the Eds defeat the giant octopus. Just as the smart Ed is about to make another turn to face the octopus, he notices an incoming mass of bronze heading straight for him and he ducks down to prevent getting hit, only for Ed to take the hit and then feeling his face to see what the mass is. "Mmm, caramel," the tall Ed said, sticking the gooey mess into his mouth.

"… Why in the world would someone load a cannon with caramel?" questioned the smart Ed. "How's that going to do any damage to an octopus on this magnitude?"

Another load of caramel is heading right at the Eds and this time they dodge the blob, allowing the caramel to travel on and hit the octopus in its single eye. The creature lets out a roar and starts wiping its eye clear of the caramel, as the Eds head towards the dock and come to a stop in front of the mass of people. The mob angrily stares at the Ed in rage, but the boys turn their backs on the people as they focus on the incoming blind octopus. With the giant busy wiping its eye and throwing Heartless wildly around, some going off behind the creature, and the tall Ed got off of the hovercycle to go ahead and fight the giant with his magic.

Charging up a Thundara on his staff, the tall Ed's hat uses some of his magic to defend the boy from incoming Heartless, using Gravity to knock these Heartless down into the water. The octopus finally clears its eye of the sticky caramel and notices Ed preparing his Thundara, so the giant beast takes all of its tentacles and slams them down onto the Ed. The wizard hat opens his mouth wide and casts Reflectaga onto the two, blocking the tentacles from crushing the Ed and pushing him down into the rapid water below, and Ed takes his staff and shoots his signature magic spell down onto the octopus.

The massive attack sent large sparks of electricity across the body of the octopus. The giant staggers to keep afloat, but slowly begins to sink as the giant loses its energy. The octopus closes its single eye and falls back into the rough waters, sinking down to the calm bottom below, as everyone standing on the dock, including the other Eds, are utterly shocked by the tall Ed's amazing feat. The nerdy boy takes his staff and slings it onto his shoulder, smiling his typical smile, as he heads back towards the hovercycle and sits down on his seat.

Finally snapping out of his shock, Double D notices the exit waiting off in a corner and he got the hovercycle running again. Some people in the crowd moved out of the way to allow the Eds through, as they begin to pick up speed and head into the light. Once the Eds are out of the mob's sight, the realization just came to them and some of them begin to dispute among each other on how they are going to pay the Eds back for their heroic deeds, especially to the tall Ed.

OOO

The hovercycle touches down on the soft grass fields of the Land of Ooo, slowing the vehicle down slightly as the Eds return to the colorful and strange world. As the light dims from their eyes, they got a good look at their surroundings to find new colors taking up the scenery. Streaks of red are painted onto the skies, covering up the clear blue heavens, and thick clouds of smoke blend in with the fires that are burning far away. All of this destruction is coming out of the Ice Kingdom, which is surprisingly holding up from the roaring fires, and the Eds have a feeling that they are not going to be heading there for the exit.

Riding up on the Eds are the elongated legs of Jake the dog and on top is his friend Finn. The two are heading in the same direction as the Eds, and Jake lowers himself down while maintaining his pace. "Hey guys, what are you doing back here in Ooo?" asked the dog.

"What's going on here?" asked Double D. "Is there a war going on here?"

"No, even worse than that," replied Finn. "The ultimate evil in Ooo has awakened and is reeking terror across the land! We're heading to the Ice Kingdom to put a stop to it and seal it away just like Billy did with the Lich."

"We're kinda looking for an exit point around here," said Eddy, "so if you guys have seen a glowing sphere somewhere, just tell us and we'll be out of your hair."

"Sorry man, but we haven't seen a glowing sphere anywhere when we're heading out," replied Jake.

"If we did, I'm certain someone must have grabbed it and taken it somewhere to earn some money off of that," added Finn.

"Say since you guys are here, why don't you help us out in beating up this ultimate evil?" the dog offered. "I hear this thing is as tough as the Lich and much scarier in appearance."

"Thank you for the offer," answered the smart Ed, "but we are in a hurry. We need to find the glowing sphere Eddy mentioned and hurry to save the universe from an impending doom."

"Aw man, and here I though we're getting to do something awesome," whined Finn. "But we do have to save everyone in Ooo from whatever this evil is, so the universe can wait for us."

"And it may be better if me and my friends were the ones to take on the task," the medium Ed added. "Since I do bear the Keyblade and it is kind of our problem in the first place, it's really the best that you stay on this world and continue to protect it as we go off and fight to stop whatever is coming."

"Well I can say that we wish you the best of luck," said the boy hero, saluting to the Eds. "But how come you aren't using your ship to go stop this evil?"

"That's a long story in on itself," mumbled Double D.

"That's why we're looking for the glowing sphere," answered Ed.

Both Jake and Finn let out an "ooh" in response and the two teams beginning to head off in separate directions. Finn and Jake are heading towards the burning Ice Kingdom to stop the evil plaguing the icy grounds, while the Eds continue to head on straight in their search for the exit. However the boys are distracted by the shouts and grunts coming from the local heroes, as the duo are fighting empty space. The two are shouting that they are fighting against a powerful demon, but in reality they are punching, kicking and swinging at the air.

As the Eds are heading in to help Finn and Jake, the boys notice a person running away from the action. The Ed boys are uncertain if this is the person responsible for the heroes to fight an invisible villain or is trying to escape from the fires, leaving the Eds to continue on with their journey. They approach the duo and sweep them off of them feet, only to then get beaten up by Finn and Jake. Ed and Double D free their grasp on the heroes and watch them tumble atop of the grass before Jake picks Finn up onto his back and starts chasing the Ed boys.

"Uh guys, have you noticed their eyes?" asked Eddy. "They look like they're possessed or something, kinda like when Jonny was."

"I've noticed that," replied Double D, "but their eyes aren't the exact same to those possessed by the Lich King. If that boy that we saw running away was the one responsible for this, then we should ask him on break these two free."

"Either that or we head through the exit," the greedy Ed replied, blocking an attack from Jake with his shield, "and allow these two to keep on running into the fire ahead."

Double D looks up ahead to notice that there waiting at the border is the next exit leading them back to the Void. As the boy begins to figure out on how to lose the heroes, Jake comes charging up and smacks into Eddy, bumping him into the hovercycle and bruising him from the hit. The small Ed reels himself out and starts using his shield to deflect Finn's sword attacks and Jake's punches. With only seconds between the boys and the exit, Double D revs the engine up to escape the clutches of Finn and Jake, feeling the pull of the exit and then suddenly got enveloped by the light.

Once the Eds are out of their sight, Finn and Jake are blinded by the light and the dog trips across the grass, causing the two to go rolling across the soft snow. Once the two have come to a stop, they slowly got back up onto their feet and notice the Ice King walking out of a cloud of smoke, blasting ice lightning into the cloud. Finn and Jake prepare themselves for the fight ahead as they notice a towering unknown being looming in the shadows, crying out through the smoke as the Ice King tries to strike it down.

"All right Ice King," said the dog, "where's this ultimate evil that is terrorizing the Ice… what the…?"

"What the hey now?" muttered the boy hero.

Walking out from the smoke, instead of a terrifying evil being with power unimaginable, is the very small and cuddly penguin that the Ice King calls Gunter. The penguin is angrily squawking, swatting at the air for no apparent reason, as the others watch in confusion as to why the penguin is causing so much destruction. "So _Gunter_ is the ultimate evil in all of Ooo?" asked Jake.

"Yeah, apparently so," replied the Ice King. "I have no idea on how he got like this, but all I know is that when he gets mad, pretty much the whole Ice Kingdom goes up in flames. All I remember is I had my back turned and then before I knew it, poor Gunter is throwing a fit with that strange look in his eyes!""

"I was hoping either for the Lich or a hideous beast we fought back out in the field," Finn commented.

"I agree with you on that," the tyrant replied. "… What hideous beast?"

OOO

Out of the hair of the Pirate Ship once again, the Eds now find themselves in the middle of an abandoned street. The trio looks around their surroundings to find that they are in a new town, completely unfamiliar to the boys, until they notice the purple rocks in the distances and realize that they are back in Hollow Bastion. The hovercycle is riding down the main street of this empty town, with the boys thinking that they should remain on this path. With only the sound of the engine echoing off the walls, the Eds can feel that this world is not going to be a major threat during their stay.

Hiding behind the shells of homes, a few Heartless look out into the streets to find the Eds breezing through the town. A Surveillance Robot springs out from the shadows and flies high above the roofs to keep its eyes on the Eds, tracking them and sending back feed to whoever is watching through the Heartless. The Heartless decides on getting a closer look on the Eds so it lowers itself towards the streets and slowly close in on the boys, only for Eddy to check around and smack the Heartless into a wall. The Heartless disappears and leaves behind a heart, but there was something about that Heartless that stuck out to the Ed.

"Uh, are Heartless supposed to have that one mark from X.A.N.A?" asked the greedy Ed.

"I don't believe so," answered Ed's hat. "I really doubt a computer program can somehow control the will of something like the Heartless."

"Then how can you explain that?" questioned Double D, pointing straight out.

In front of the Eds, a barricade of Neoshadow begins to form and link together to block off the street. Riding up to the barricade, the Eds can see that these Neoshadows possess the symbol of X.A.N.A. over where their normal yellows eyes are supposed to be. The idea that a computer program did in fact take over creatures made out of the darkness of people's hearts begins to come real to the Eds as Darkballs shoot out from the alleys and slam their bodies at the Eds, leaving the boys little room to escape. The Heartless plan their next move into putting a stop to the Eds, but Double D quickly slams on the brakes and got the hovercycle into a spin, spiraling all three boys as Eddy and the hovercycle crash through the barricade and knock out some Heartless.

Once through, Double D straightens the hovercycle out and continues on down the street, now heading towards a towering tree looming high into the heavens and bears what appears to be a small wooden town inside of its foliage. A few more Heartless emerge from the shadows and start forming another barricade, but this one is brought down with Ed's magic. Once the Eds clear through the barricade, a few Darkballs pop out and begin to attack the Eds, but the small Ed reels himself out and uses his shield to knock the Darkballs away from the boys.

"Man, these things do not give up!" stated Eddy.

The ground then quickly shakes violently, causing the boys to tense up. "What was that?" asked the tall Ed.

More tremors ripple along the ground, rocking the hovercycle, as a large shadow crawls towards the Eds. Eddy looks behind him to notice the top of Hollow Bastion rising up before noticing that the entire castle is now moving before his eyes. He warns the others about the approaching castle and Double D slams on the brakes to get a good look. Walking up to the town is no less than the steampunk castle itself, now bearing the X.A.N.A. symbol once again, and the castle appears to have grown limbs to enable it to move.

"What on Earth possessed a man to create a program like that?" stated Double D.

"I believe none of us really wants to know that answer any time soon," answered Ed's hat. "Let's get out of here before that thing spots us!"

The medium Ed got the hovercycle back to life and creating a cloud of smoke as the vehicle rockets down the street and tugging Eddy forcefully along. The castle now has a clear shot of the city and begins to excavate the ruins to see if the program can find the Eds anywhere in the streets. When X.A.N.A. notices the trio escaping to the tree, the program orders the castle to speed up its walking and prepares a plan on capturing the trio.

As the Eds are getting closer to the tree, they notice that the next exit is waiting for them at the base of the tree. The tremors are getting stronger and the castle closes in slowly and slowly, giving the boys little time to make their escape. Just as X.A.N.A. enters the town, a rocket emerges from the tree and hits the castle, knocking X.A.N.A. back and got the Eds to look up to see who rescue them. From what they saw, they notice that the tree is occupied by this world's sector of the Kids Next Door, Sector V. The Eds let out a sigh of relief as they head into the sphere and continue to travel on back to the Void.

X.A.N.A. regains footing and shakes off the rocket as the program begins to analyze the tree. Inside of the buildings, all five members of Sector V are scattered across the tree, controlling certain parts, as the tree begins to arm itself for the fight ahead. "All right Kids Next Door," started Numbuh One, "BATTLE STATIONS!"

OOO

Once through the light, the Eds find themselves out in the middle of the empty streets of Traverse Town. They check the skies to notice that it is nighttime, meaning most of the people should be in bed by now, and there are no signs of life roaming the streets. The Eds are relieved that they are not in the middle of a war or some crazy disaster, as seeing the empty streets of a peaceful town is making them want to stop riding and come to a stop. They decide on taking a break in the main district of town and relax at a café, which is surprisingly open at this time of hour.

Coming to a stop, Ed and Eddy head over to a table as Double D got off of the hovercycle to walk it over to a safe spot. As the Ed leans the hovercycle up against a wall, he can hear the sound of metal clanking together and he turns his head in the direction of the sound to notice a giant Heartless moving into the district. This Heartless walking in is a walking armor suit, its metal a royal blue and bearing the Heartless emblem on its chest, though there are no limbs connecting its arms, legs and head to the center.

"Hey, isn't that the Guard Armor you were talking about?" asked the greedy Ed.

"Yes, that's the very one," replied the wizard hat. "That there is the Powered Armor that once protected this town before its brother Guard Armor went mad and was forced to be sealed away. But how could the bell have struck thirteen? There's no explanation for the bell tower to ring more than twelve times at midnight?"

"Well if we're going to fight this thing, I rather sit back on this and watch the others fight," said Eddy. "I'm getting tired and I could use a break."

"Same here Eddy," added Double D, "and besides, I don't believe this Heartless will do any harm to any of us, as long as we stay on its good side."

"Hey, do you feel a little lighter than usual?" asked Ed.

High above the Eds is the same anomaly they noticed back in the other worlds, only until now they are seeing this void very closer up. As they stare up into the black mass floating up in the sky, they can see that this anomaly is similar to the entrance of the Everlasting Void and the abyss in the Void, with a black center with a ring of dark purple mass circling around the gaping black. This anomaly is focusing down on Traverse Town, with no one up to witness their impending doom, and the Eds can see the void is slowly getting bigger with each minute passing by. The boys check their surroundings to see some small, loose items floating up into the black mass and they can see their clothes are fluttering.

"Sheesh, we can't get a break anywhere without running into trouble," groaned Eddy.

"I don't think that our main problem Eddy," replied Double D.

Out from the anomaly reaches two skinny black arms, its bony hands strangely gripping onto the edges of the void as a giant black mass drips down and starts forming into a hideous beast. Riding on top of the monster's head is a man dressed in a torn outfit and bearing unusual blue wings on his back, as this man stands proudly on the monster's head and lets out a loud snap of his fingers. On the ground, several puddles of shadows form and out of these shadows are what appear to be Neoshadows, but their bodies are more flame like and their eyes are slanted and red, unblinking with anger. The army of these new Heartless begins to look around their surroundings before looking over to the café, locking onto the Eds as the boys stare out into a sea of red, black and blue.

"Run," whispered Ed's hat.

Doing so, the Eds sprint over to the hovercycle and scramble to get onto the vehicle as the new Heartless let out a disturbing hiss and jump towards the Eds. Double D roars the hovercycle to life and the bike glows a bright light, causing the Heartless to back away, and the Eds head off through a clearing towards the town's entrance, where they can see the glowing sphere waiting for them. As the Eds head towards the exit, the monster and the man watch the action from high above, keeping an eye on the moving trio as they disappear into the sphere and head back to the Everlasting Void.

The man lets out a disturbing demonic laugh as the monsters lowers itself down onto the town and looks towards the Powered Armor…

OOO

As the Eds ride out from the last shrine, they look out on the curving path to notice that their only path is diving down into the black void, but they can see a portal is open at the halfway mark. Waiting for them as always is the Pirate Ship, inching to get a bite of the Eds and bring them into the darkness. They can see that Ed's fire attack has created a large opening in the hull, clearly bigger than the previous attempt at damaging the ship, and the Eds notice that there are Heartless working away at fixing the repairs. Cannons are lock onto the Eds and ready to fire as the two vehicles continue to head down the stone pathway.

"All right, we got to get rid of this thing before it destroys our path to Jib," said Double D. "Do we have anything on us that will help defeat the Pirate Ship?"

"If we can go back and get our Gummi ship out here, we can use that against this thing," pitched Eddy, "but that thing destroyed our only way back to our ship. There's no way we're getting back without flying back over to the entrance."

"So our only hope is using the Keyblade in flying us back to the exit, or capture the Pirate Ship and take control of it," said the smart Ed. "Personally I want to go with the former plan, since the Pirate Ship is on the verge of going under if we do another hit like Ed did previously."

"I don't know if I can do that again," Ed commented.

"And also I really hate this thing to death," the small Ed grumbled. "I really want to see this thing burn with the rest of Ed's attack."

The Pirate Ship locks all of their cannons onto the hovercycle and begins to open fire once again, hoping that its fire will destroy the Eds. Weaving through a hail of steel, the medium Ed watches out for potential potholes and falling debris as Ed and Eddy try to deflect some of the cannonballs back. Those that were sent back hit some of the working Heartless that were trying to repair the ship, giving the Eds a slightly better edge in winning this fight. But there is still the matter of taking down a very large ship that is alive…

A loud roar echoes far across the void as the Eds and the Pirate Ship searches all around for the source of the roar. During the confusion, the Pirate Ship is struck with a mighty slash made out darkness, creating a crack on the deck and nearly splitting the ship in half. The Pirate Ship lets out a roar in pain as the cannon fire increases and destroys the path in front of the Eds. The smart Ed notices that there is a ramp made out of the rubble and the hovercycle launches up high into the air, all before the vehicle shifting back into its Keyblade state and sending all three Eds flying.

The three Eds grab a hold of each other and form into a ring that will eventually allow them to keep moving on ahead. While the Eds are rolling along the pathway, the Pirate Ship begins to keep up with the Eds as two mysterious beings begin to hack away at the hull of the ship. Despite their small stature, the two beings are creating significance damage to the Heartless ship, all while buying the Eds some time and casting all of the smaller Heartless in the void below. The Pirate Ship fires off everything that it has remaining inside of the ship, including its largest cannon, all before it begins to sink.

In its final act, the Pirate Ship launches its largest round up high as the beings that destroyed the ship watch the Heartless sink into the depths of the void. Once the ship slips away from reality, the two beings look up to remember that the Pirate Ship launched its powerful round, seeing the giant sphere slowly descending down towards their level. These beings want to warn Eds of their impending doom, but the two are also worry about their own safety, so they fly off to escape the dangerous range of the shockwave to come.

Once the cannon fire reaches the stone pathway, an explosion rips the round apart and sends the shockwave flying across the void. The Eds are hit by this powerful wave, all with enough force to knock them off of the path and destroying most of the path. The three boys now begin to fall towards their doom as they free themselves from the ring, noticing that they are going to end up with the same fate as the Pirate Ship. But before they can reach the void, a strong force tugs onto their shirts and starts hoisting them up to an untouched part of the bridge.

The beings that destroyed the Pirate Ship drop the Eds down on the pathway, landing the trio right in front of a portal, and the beings lower themselves in front of the Eds to reveal themselves. Once the Eds begin to realize what is going on, they are quickly startled to see who is before them. "No way, it's you two!" stated Eddy. "But how in the world are you two down here?"

"Isn't it clear to you three yet?" started the white being known as Zip-fly. "We are part of a whole that are on a quest to become that whole again."

"Well to be more precise, we're heading back to our dimension to either become whole or just keep being as we are," added the black being known as Prankster.

"Wait… you guys are from another dimension?" questioned Double D.

"Yes, but we're trying to figure out on how we even got to this universe in the first place," said Zip-fly. "As far as I remember, Prankster and I were brought here during the time Jib created the Unversed, when we believed Blitzer was our brother. From there, our memories began to come back to us and we started to remember who we originally were."

"We weren't exactly the evil beings that you fought before," said the Heartless. "That was… wait, I was insane at that point, and plus all I remember was getting dragged by that ghost freak and then a rock ended up in the wrong place, causing me to end up here."

"That's a good thing you didn't go into further details about that," the smart Ed commented. "So then all of this time you were a good Heartless and a good Nobody?"

"Not necessary, since our memories weren't fully completed by the time I chased you guys back at Stormalong Harbor," answered Zip-fly. "If Prankster was still around with me, he would have remembered around the same time as I did and we would be joining you in getting back home."

"Then why don't you join us in fighting against the Destroyer of Light?" asked the hat. "Since he was the one that brought you here and raised you to be evil, why don't you help us in defeating him and preventing the destruction of the universe?"

"Thanks for the offer, but we rather search for a way back home," the Nobody replied.

"Besides, I got you guys a friendly gift of one flying Heartless that will help you," Prankster stated. "Consider it as a peace offering for all of the miserable stuff we've done to you these past months."

"You mean like how you destroyed our world?" Eddy growled.

The Heartless puts on a sheepish smile on his face, remembering how he was the one who summoned a Darkside and sent Peach Creek into the darkness. "Well, if all goes according to plan, you three should be heading straight for Kingdom Hearts," he said. "Hopefully you can ask for your world to come back to life."

"Really, we would like to help you in your mission, but we're only going to get in the way," said Zip-fly. "I really doubt that Jib would be greeting us with warm arms, especially since he got this far in the game."

"Yeah, I really doubt that it's going to be all peachy if we see that ugly mug of his," the Heartless commented. "And I should warn you guys: be careful that Jib does not remove his necklace. Pretty much your lives will be hanging on a thin thread if he removes that."

"What happens when he does?" asked Ed, sounding curious.

"It would explain some of the missing worlds during the Epidemic," answered the Nobody, causing all three Eds to gulp. "Now if you would excuse us, we are going to head off and continue exploring until we find what we are searching for."

"Wait, before you go," said Double D, "we need to ask you about what's happening in the worlds right now. Are they really falling to destruction or are those visions we saw of the future?"

The Nobody and Heartless stop in their tracks as they turn around to show confused looks on their faces. "I'm sorry, but we don't know what has been happening out of the Void," answered Zip-fly. "As far as I know, the worlds are perfectly fine at the moment, save for a few on the verge of unleashing their own hells. Why do you ask?"

"If you look above you, you notice that there are shrines that hold sphere leading to the other worlds," explained Normadomus. "However, these worlds have either a war going on, a disaster taking place or in an apocalypse. There's also a growing void hanging up in the skies that eventually spawn new Heartless-Unversed creations and a monstrous being that was controlled by a powerful man. … Now that I've just explained it, those _were_ visions of the future! Say, can you explain what does happen if the Destroyer removes his symbol from his necklace?"

"Well his appearance changes and the Unversed symbol become wings of some sort," answered Prankster. "Is there's a reason…"

"A man was riding a giant black creature and from what I caught of him, that man bear blue wings that look like the Unversed symbol as a whole! If that is true, then we really need to hurry! It's only a matter of time before the Destroyer gets his hands on Kingdom Hearts and then recreating all of those visions that we saw!"

"Then what are we waiting for!" stated Eddy. "Let's get through that portal and kick Jib's butt!"

"Hold it!" stated both Prankster and Zip-fly. "Do you have any idea on what you're getting yourselves into?" said the Nobody. "You have no idea that if you step through that portal, you'll never be able to escape the Void!"

"There's a chance for everything," Double D replied. "Whatever possibilities are out there, we're going to be possibly the first to ever conquer the Everlasting Void, defeat the Destroyer of Light and see if Kingdom Hearts is real or a myth. If we fail, at least we die as heroes."

"Man, you're some of the toughest humans I've ever met in my existence," said Prankster, before sticking a hand into his cloak. "Anyway, I need to give you what you need to summon the Heartless that I was talking about. Just blow this whistle and you should have a winged Heartless at your side, no matter where you are in the Void."

The Heartless tosses Double D a small silver whistle and he pockets the whistle as the Eds watch Zip-fly and Prankster head up to search for their way home. Once the duo has left their sight, the Eds focus their eyes on the portal before them and they begin to feel tightness in their chest as they stare deep into the portal. "Well, this is it gentlemen," started Double D. "Once we step through that portal, there's no telling what waits on the other end nor do we know if we will ever step through it to leave this place. Our only hope is to keep heading forward and find Jib."

"At long last, we will finally meet Jib once again and then we'll show him not to mess with the Ed boys!" stated Eddy, getting himself pump for the fight.

"Buttered toast with gravy!" proclaimed Ed.

"Well Ed boys, it has been an honor serving you all of the way to this point," said Normadomus. "I have learned quite a lot being with you and I noticed that you three have changed a lot as well. You three have went from being reckless misfits into some mighty fine men, learning how to survive and helping others in time of need, all while putting a stop to some of the greatest evils that plague this universe. I'm very certain that no other heroes like you could have pulled off a feat like that! You three have come a long way and let's just say… I'm happy to be with you all of this time."

"So let's do this for real Ed, Eddward and Eddy, let's go through that portal and make history!"

With a determined smile on all of their faces, the Ed boys of a defender, a wizard and a key bearer begin to take their steps towards the portal for their final confrontation with Ed's former friend and the Destroyer of Light: Jib…

* * *

… How many of you didn't suspect to be hearing about a good Heartless aiding the Eds for the final fight?

Well, considering that I never gave the Eds the ability of flight anywhere in this story, whether it is through the Eds' strange gifts or something artificial, I never gave them the Glide ability. So… what does this mean when they are possibly going to fight my version of the World's End? Answer: what Prankster is offering them. Hey, just because he worked for an evil person doesn't mean he _is_ evil.

So this is the part of the End of the World where, like I said, we go back to worlds we previously visited and take on Heartless to make Sora and gang much stronger in an attempt to get ready for the final fight. I didn't want to do that and decided to allow the Eds to breeze through the worlds, while looking for an exit instead of facing off wave after wave of Heartless. I already did that in the last chapter, so doing that again will only be redundant. Plus having a boss battle in the middle of going from world to world will definitely keep the Eds on their feet as they try to figure out a strategy to defeat the giant.

If there is one thing, there's another way, and I believe the Eds have accomplish the other. And that brings up the fact of Zip-fly and Prankster turning out to be good instead of evil. Like I said, I was trying to figure out these characters, so now I've decided on making them good in the sense of that even though they are what they are, that doesn't mean that they are evil. I am hoping that I can explore more of their characters when I break away from the Ed boys and explore this _Kingdom Hearts_ idea that I have worming around in my head that really takes place after _Kingdom Hearts III_ that will eventually lead our hero into a new arc (_KHIII_ will mark the end of the Xehanort Arc).

And I got to love how I managed to slip in that Blues Brothers reference. And it should be noted that even though Slade is dead, he will make his return… If this reboot DC is doing will prove something that nothing will die, even when one is a former terrorist…

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next is the conclusion to this story with one final boss battle: against one of my strongest creations mixed with a one-shot idea… Jib, the Destroyer of Light!


	27. Act IV, Ch 27: vs the Destroyer, part 1

All right, we have finally got to the end of this story. It's now time to put on the final boss battle for this story and we'll see who is going to come victorious in this battle. We have the Eds versus one Jib from previous years, but there is a twist to him, so who knows?

All I can really say is this...

Legal Stuff: **I DO NOT own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_**, anything within **_**Kingdom Hearts, **_**or anything else. The Eds belongs and are copyrighted by the great Danny Antonucci and his team at AKA Studios, the **_**Kingdom Hearts **_**series belong to Square Enix, and anything else belongs to their retrospective creators. I do, however, own any original content mention in this story.**

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Seven – The Eds v. Jib the Destroyer, Part I

OOO

The Eds got out of the portal, after walking for a few minutes in a strange tunnel, and they take their first steps into the new world. Upon arriving, the Eds notice that everything is not in place, with just every single detail looking awfully suspicious to them, and they decide to walk farther up ahead. As they walk ahead, the portal close behind them, leaving them stranded on this new world. Double D takes note on the world around him, and he realizes where they are.

"Eddy... it's home!" Double D stuttered. "We're... We're really... home!"

"I don't think so," said Eddy.

Much to Double D's, and the others', disappointment, the home they knew as Peach Creek is in ruins. The cul-de-sac that the Eds live in is in a twisted mess of being gone in the shadows for so long. All of the homes are in ruins and out of place, with everything inside in places they should not be and strange oddities filling up some of the missing space. There are blotches of darkness everywhere, covering up some holes where they should not be, and there are cracks in the earth to when the town was being sucked in.

The once peaceful cul-de-sac of Peach Creek is, if not, one sad place for the Eds to come back to.

"Everything looks like a Dali painting," Double D pointed out.

"Surreal," said Ed, moving his arms like waves.

"Uh, is that supposed to happen?" asked Eddy, pointing up.

Double D looks up to notice a mutated cow floating in the sky. "I sure hope that we are not reliving that one experience we had," he mutters, smacking his head.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

The Eds stiffen upon hearing the voice and they turn around to find a man floating in the air right behind them. He is levitating off the ground several feet off, and it appears as if he is sitting on an invisible box. The man is wearing a dark outfit, with a long dark gray jacket with red trimmings, over a navy blue shirt and dark brown pants. The man is also has his jacket's collar is up, gray gloves on his hands, and there are some zippers on the man's sleeves and belts around his waist. For the man's head, there is a small smile on his face, with a pair of hypnotic purple eyes staring at the Eds, and his short spiky hair is light blue in color.

And the Eds notice the same symbol Blitzer had on his collar and his back, which makes this man an Unversed. The Eds got their weapons ready to fight the man, but he does not bother to move from his spot. Instead, he gives a friendly laugh. "My, my, look how much you three have grown," the man said. "The last time we met you three were scheming up something for treats. I believe it was a prize-grabbing machine, was it?"

"Who are you?" asked Eddy.

"Eddy, you don't know who I am? It's been years since we last met. I think you'll recall setting that one trap for me, only for me to turn the tables on you."

The Eds lower their guard to notice that this man is the very person they are seeking for, only instead of shadows, he is a living person. The man begins to drop towards the ground and he places both of his feet once he touch the ground. The man is still smiling as he starts to head towards the Eds, and they got their guards up now realizing who this man really is.

"It's been years since we last met," the man known as Jib said, "so many years since that faithful day, and I came this close to reaching my goal!"

"Goal? Wait a minute..." Double D begins to say. "You mean...?"

"That's right, I know the exact location as to where Kingdom Hearts' been hiding all this time," Jib said, "and it is here! The lost word of Peach Creek holds the final lock that I need to pick in order to gain access to the ultimate power that is Kingdom Hearts!"

"And why exactly do you want with Kingdom Hearts?" Eddy asked.

"Ain't it obvious to you yet? All throughout time, there is one thing that fuels mankind and that is power! What lies behind the doors of Kingdom Hearts will give me the kind of power man has dreamed of for eons, and it's all within my reach. Before I can get to the door, I just need to get rid of you pieces of trash, and then the final door waits for me."

"You're not going anywhere!" snapped Ed. "We're not making you!"

Jib lets out a devilish laugh. "Come on! You three can't beat me!" he snorted. "You may have taken down Blitzer, but the last two fights were caused by you using summoning charms to take down Prankster and Zip-fly. Just to let you know, I am not like those three, meaning that I am much tougher, even with all three combine."

"And I'm the King of Peru," said Eddy. "We taken down thugs tougher than you and we're going to make sure we take you down as well."

The Unversed lets out a wicked laugh. "All right then, it's your funeral," he said. "Just to let you know these two things. One: Once I get my hands on Kingdom Hearts, my power is going to excel beyond my creator, and two: I'm not going to go easy unlike before."

"Bring it!" the Eds and Normadomus shouted at once.

The evil imaginary friend flashes a wide wicked smile as he begins to hover in the air, with arms out as he begins to extract the surrounding darkness and add it to his. Once the Eds begin to make their move towards Jib, he shoots back and claps his hands together, allowing the darkness to form onto his hands. As the Eds got closer, Jib pulls his hands apart, and he flashes his hands to make his pointer and pinky fingers extend out and he raises one hand for an attack.

"Shadow Wave!"

The shadows begin to drop towards the ground and culminate into a large puddle before growing up and making a wall. The boys stop in their tracks but the wall collapses on them and wash them away from Jib, as the man is laughing over the fall of the Eds. They boys recover from their fall, struggling to get up from the immense amount of energy that was in that blow.

"What was that? Did Ed do that?" asked Eddy.

"No. I'm afraid we're dealing with something much stronger here," answered Double D.

"You got that right Double D," said Jib. "You should know that if you want to win a fight, you got to do it in your natural element, and you guys aren't even close to where I am!"

"And what makes you say that?" asked Eddy.

"Don't you see the shadows around you? They give me the source of my magic and with enough here to get me through thousands of spells, possibly millions! You on the other hand aren't in the best of spots, since I know one of you wield Light magic, and I'm known as the Destroyer of Light!"

Double D takes his Keyblade and allows light to accumulate on the shaft and shooting it at Jib. The man takes a hand and negates the attack, cancelling it as a smile appears on his face and leaving the Eds looking glum. "You see? Not even Light is going to help you in this dimension!"

"Then eat shadows!" shouted Ed, blasting a powerful Shadara at Jib and causing the others to protest. The Unversed sticks his arms out and catches the incoming wave, grabbing onto the edges of the attack before crumbling the attack like paper. Once the shadow is in a ball, Jib takes this attack and forms a fireball in his palm, all while creating another shadow fireball in his free hand as the man takes Ed's attack and tosses the first flames at his former friend.

"Shadow Flare!" shouted Jib, calling his attack as he flings the next fireball at the other Eds.

The Unversed continues to produce his attacks in rapid succession, throwing all of the dark flames he can throw at the three Eds, as the trio uses their weapons to block the attacks. Double D notices that the staff is absorbing the fireballs and causing the Keyblade to turn black, meaning that the Ed is learning to use Shade, but he casts Light to break the darkness away from his weapon.

The small Ed is also collecting the darkness on his shield, increasing the strength of his shield and giving him the chance to use this against Jib. However, a part of his mind is warning him that Jib will absorb the darkness and use it against the Ed, but Eddy wants to test this theory. Getting his shield ready, Eddy charges through the barrage of fireballs and uses his shield to deflect and absorb the attacks to increase the darkness already on the shield.

As Jib notices the small Ed closing in on him, he stops his attack and flashes a smile as an idea pops into his head. The Unversed reaches out and latches his hand onto Eddy's face, and somehow extracts the shadows accumulated on the shield, all while lifting the small Ed off of the ground. Once the darkness has been lifted from the shield, Jib swings his arm and thrusts Eddy into the ground, creating a crater in the ground as sparks of dark electricity form on the Unversed's hand. "Shadow Snare!" the man stated.

The electricity intensifies as the Ed's body begins to squirm from the voltage running through him. Once the boy settles down, Jib removes his hand and looks up to notice both Ed and Double D heading right towards him. The Unversed prepares a hand sign and starts collecting shadows as Ed charges up a Thundara and Double D prepares to use his Fire spell. Once the shadows gathered, Jib flashes his hand at the Eds and the shadows burst a cannonball right at the duo, knocking them off of their feet. Both Double D and Ed quickly recover from their fall and they try again at attacking Jib, but the Unversed throws up a shadow wall to block the two.

Ed takes his staff and uses his charged Thundara to bring down the shadow wall, but waiting for them on the other side are several dark icicles aiming right at the Eds. Jib thrusts his arms forward, pushing the ice forward at the boys to induce harm. Double D uses his Keyblade to knock some of the ice away, but Ed fails to knock a few away and is pin down to the ground. Normadomus jumps off of Ed's head and starts knocking off the ice, leaving Double D to fend for himself against the imaginary friend.

The smart Ed tries once again at using Light on Jib, but the Unversed catches the shaft when Double D swung the weapon at him. However, Double D uses Distraction and throws Jib into a small loop, leaving the Ed some room to land a counterstrike. This turns sour when Jib snaps his hands together and creates a puddle right below Double D, then launching a column of shadows right into the medium Ed's stomach. Double D begins to cough for air as the column continues to travel up and the Ed slides down off of the column, as the Unversed appears right behind the Ed and punches the boy through the shadow column.

The body of the smart Ed tumbles right pass Ed, who is now back on his feet and his eyes are burning with determination. Taking his staff, he tries to create the very Limit Break he used to defeat Blitzer some time ago, but he can only get a Thundara going. Using this, the Ed flings his spell at his former friend, who only returns the favor by casting his own lightning spell at the Ed. The two lightning bolts collide, creating a bright ball of light at the point of contact, as the two magic wielders collide in a test of power to see whose lightning is stronger. With Jib using one hand to cast his magic, the Unversed gathers some shadows to create a fireball and he flings it at the Ed, causing him to lose his concentration and break the test. Ed skids all of the way towards a recovering, leaving Jib to pinch his face and let out a heavy sigh.

"Oh come on, this is nothing but a curb stomp here," the Unversed commented. "Surely you boys picked up something that will at least put a scratch on me."

"Ed, can you try to use one of your Limit Breaks?" whispered Double D.

"Hat, can you use Libra to see what Jib's weakness is?" whispered the tall Ed.

The wizard hat is baffled by Ed making a request to him instead of answering his friend, but he is surprised by how the tall boy knows about that one spell. "Well, there is a chance that I can use it, but it's been a while since I last used it," the hat answered.

"What is this Libra?" asked the smart Ed.

"Libra is an old White Magic spell that enables the user to read the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents," explained Normadomus. "It became very rare to see a wizard like me using the spell, mainly since all of that data has been recorded and really became second hand to all of us. Plus, performing the spell requires total concentration and no interruption, so there may be a chance that I might…"

Before the wizard can finish, a spiral of darkness hits the wizard hat off of the tall Ed's head and the Eds look to notice a bored look on Jib's face. "Are we done talking here?" he asked. "I want to get back to the fight so that I can get that Keyblade and open the final door!"

Ed grabs his fallen hat and places it back on his head before taking off towards Jib, leaving Double D to go check on the still fallen Eddy. "Eddy, are you all right?" he asked. "Are you able to get up?"

"What does it look like to you?" the small Ed replied sharply, his body shaking and small sparks of electricity arching over his body. "I've been trying to get up, but I can't move my body! Jib must've done something to me when he attacked me back there…"

"That's called the Shadow Snare, Eddy," replied Jib. "It binds whoever comes into contact with my hand, disabling all body movements for a short amount of time. For how long will remain under lock and key."

The small Ed begins to feel some of his limbs regaining feeling and he starts to lift himself off of the ground, but only slightly since a part of him is still under the effects of the shadow move. Eddy evilly glares at the Unversed and prepares his shield, as the Ed tosses his weapon at the Destroyer to see if he can cause some damage. Jib catches the shield with his hand and he tosses it right back at Eddy, knocking right into the small Ed and dropping him back to the ground. The greedy boy got right back onto his feet, his face red with rage, and he charges right at the Unversed with no weapons to protect him.

Jib cracks his knuckles, watching the small Ed heading right towards him, as shadows begin to form on one of his fists. Once he has enough, Jib pulls his fist back and swings it towards Eddy, causing the shadows to leave his hand and jump out at Eddy to punch him in the face. Calling his attack, Jib sends the small Ed flying across the street as Double D rushes over to help his fallen friend. Ed watches his friends fly off into the distance before focusing his sight onto Jib and he charges up to use his staff on the Unversed.

Ed bats his way at the man, swinging his staff as Jib blocks the staff with his hands. At one point, Ed brought his staff and Jib catches it with some struggle, causing him to dig his feet into the ground, but the Unversed pushes the Ed back and starts gathering shadows. Ed's hat unzips his mouth and blasts Aeroga, Gravitaga and Blizzaga at the Unversed to see which spell will do any effect. The only one that seemed to work is Gravitaga, as Jib begins to feel a little uneasy and is blown back from the spell.

Now experiencing minor pain, Jib continues to gather shadows as he flies towards the tall Ed. Using his feet, the Unversed unleashes his blinding fury down on the Ed. The wizard boy struggles to keep up with Jib's kicking by defending with his stone staff, but the Unversed is moving too fast for the boy. Double D and Eddy intervene with their weapons in tow, and Jib casts a shadow wave down on the Eds but the defender and key bearer block the attack and beat Jib with his attack. As the man stumbles back from a double blow, Ed quickly uses his Terra spell and catches Jib in the ground, preventing him from escaping.

"All right tell us Jib, what have you been doing all of these years? Why have you chosen to strike now and go after the untouchable?" asked Double D.

"Well, to begin I wanted to say that when I first conceived, my master told me to go after Kingdom Hearts because he was trapped in some tree on an unknown world. I spent my life roaming the universe looking for answers before I discovered my powers and then creating the havoc you know as the Seeing Real Epidemic. Now with the title as the Destroyer of Light and creator of the Unversed, I continued to search for a way to Kingdom Hearts until I met that fool Father…

"He went on how he was going to be the first to get Kingdom Hearts, making the claim that he wants to create an army of well-behaved children using the hearts of the fallen in order to do so. From there, he began to create his army of men that will go to other worlds to collect the Purest Six, but he was having trouble with that. So I sent those two beings that came into this universe, Prankster and Zip-fly, with Blitzer in a plot to be under Father's guidance to help him get the path to the Realm of Darkness open, allowing me the chance to go through for my next step."

"Pretty much you want Father to do all the work for you, much like what your creator made you for," said Eddy. "Man, that's low, even for me."

"That's really something coming from your mouth Eddy," Jib replied. "Perhaps I got some of that when I was visiting your world that one time."

"And I have to ask you something about what we saw on the other worlds when we're arriving here," added Double D. "All of the worlds we visited had some sort of disaster going on, and we came to the conclusion that what we saw were visions of the future. It was also believed that you were the one that caused the mayhem and destruction."

"So you saw mayhem and destruction on the other worlds?" questioned the Unversed. "Well, certainly what you saw was nothing more of a vision to the events of what's to come. It's clear that no one knows the events are going to happen, but if I were to take a guess that these events were the cause of me taking infinite power, then it's no likely that those events will become true! Then that means that all I have to do is get the Keyblade from you and I will unlock the door to infinite power!"

"Then why haven't you taken Double D's Keyblade when you had the chance?" asked Eddy. "You could've stolen it when you were back at Hollow Bastion!"

"True, but acquiring a Keyblade is a rather interesting, though difficult and frustrating, task. I could have killed Double D or that other boy for their Keyblades and walk through the portal, but what good will that be if I found out if I was carrying another Keyblade of Darkness on me?"

All three of the Eds and Normadomus are confused by that statement as Jib continues on with his explanation. "You see, it is said that in order to unlock the final lock, you need a Keyblade of Light and a Keyblade of Darkness. If one were to wield both Keyblades at once, he is said to possess the true key within him and has access to what lies behind that scared door. I, on the one hand, possess a key that unlocks the darkness half, meaning that I need only the light key to unlock the other half. Double D, if that Keyblade is the other half, then you should know that I need to kill you for that final key."

"So… are you saying that I possess this Keyblade of Light?" asked the smart Ed, a bit confused on the situation.

"Well I don't know if that's true or not, but from what I'm sensing you do hold in your possession the very key I'm searching for. That very Keyblade you hold in your hands is my other half and what I need for the final lock. With that Keyblade of Light, I will then create the key that will unlock the door and I will achieve what you saw in those visions of yours."

"So then, what you're trying to get at is that you want to create the legendary X-Blade and use its two Keyblades of Light and Darkness to unlock the door to Kingdom Hearts?" summarized Ed's hat. "… You sir are a lunatic! There has been no way of creating the X-Blade out of just two random Keyblades that possess the two halves it needs for the weapon to exist, and yet you want to create that weapon so that you can obtain infinite power that expands beyond your creator and possibly destroy the universe with your infantile Heartless-Unversed creations! Plus you have the gall to go about destroying worlds that don't have the answers you seek and are too lazy to lift a finger into searching for a mythical kingdom that just so happens to exist thanks to you! I don't know what possessed your creator to make a being like you, but you sir shouldn't be possessing the kind of powers you have if you want to achieve some simple fantasy!"

There is some silence coming from all of the Eds and the Unversed, as the boys look up at Normadomus in utter shock and Jib is staring at the group with a blank expression on his face. After some minutes, Jib regains some emotions and decides on speaking up. "Well… I never thought that you'll take it that badly," he said. "And what else can I do anyway? The X-Blade needs the Keyblade in their true form, Kingdom Key, and obtaining that is not that hard unless Double D here continues to put up a fight."

The wizard lets out a growl in response as his eyes begin to twitch. In his vision, he starts to see in a digitized space as his eyesight locks onto Jib and starts showing off all of the information about the Unversed. "All right, I've locked onto him and I'm now gathering all that is available about the Destroyer," he noted.

"All right!" stated all three Eds at once. "So what are you seeing?" asked Eddy.

"From what I'm getting, the Destroyer has his strengths in Fire, Lightning and Ice while he's weak in Holy, Water and oddly he doesn't have Gravity immunity like many other people," explained the hat. "On the side note he does have immunity to all known status effects, so even if we know how to poison, silence, paralyze, berserk, slow, petrify, sleep, confuse, blind, or even instant death, it wouldn't make a difference on him."

"Wait… Jib is afraid of getting wet?" asked Eddy. "Aren't your and Double D's Blizzard spells water?"

"Yeah, but don't ask me on how that works," the wizard answered. "It kind of works like rock-paper-scissors, though I don't understand on how that theory applies with Fire, Lightning and Ice. Plus Water has no real ties to Ice other than being a pure version of it, but it was disclosed as a weak and useless spell and hardly a lot of wizards used the spell, so it was abandoned in practice."

"Well, that's good to hear that Jib has some weaknesses," answered the smart Ed. "What else did you gathered about Jib?"

The hat nods to this and gives one final look at the Unversed before noticing a new fact. "Uh boys, you should really see what is emitting off of the Destroyer," the hat muttered.

In the Eds' fear-struck eyes, emitting from the Unversed is large devilish shadow outlined in fiery red. The shadow is wrapping around Jib as the rest towers over the group, staring down at the Eds with soulless eyes. The entire body of the shadow is jumping around, giving the appearance that the shadow is made out of flames, while the head of the shadow remains stationary. As the Eds continue to stare up at the shadow, they begin to feel their energy being drain from their bodies.

"… Wh-Wha… What is t-that?" Double D blurted in fear.

"This… shows my connection to my creator," answered Jib. "It may sound strange to you, but this is the thing that is allowing me to use the key inside of me. I remember hearing in my creator's words that if I were to stray the path of self-indulgence and greed, I would lose the key inside of me and I won't have access to Kingdom Hearts. However, I decided on walking the thin line of staying loyal to my creator and betraying him for my own greed, all for when I finally unlock the final door."

"Man, that makes things a lot easier for us," said Eddy. "So all we need to do is make sure you fall away from your creator and you won't destroy the universe!"

"Ha, please! You boys still couldn't land a scratch on me," the Unversed snorted. "Even if you did, there's that part of me that's still loyal to my creator and that won't change until Kingdom Hearts becomes mine!"

"Like you said, you are walking a thin line there," said Normadomus. "If that shadow attached to you serves as a surveillance over your action, then just thinking about betraying him will only cause you to slip further away from your goal."

"Oh, I'm certain that I will get to Kingdom Hearts without that happening," Jib replied darkly, his hands gathering the shadows around him.

The Unversed forces his feet from the ground, freeing him from the Eds' trap, and he takes his shadows to create three claw marks in the air. The Eds defend themselves against the swipes as Double D heads in to see if he can use his Keyblade's Limit Break on Jib. Waiting for the moment of a powerful strike, Eddy and Ed use all of their tricks to entice Jib in using one of his strongest moves. After gathering some shadows, Jib gets himself ready to perform his Shadow Wave attack, giving Double D his opportunity to use his move. As the Unversed pushes his attack forward, Joker's Wild cuts through the shadows like butter and the shaft slams onto Jib's chest hard, knocking both the Ed and the Unversed away from each other.

Once Double D begins to realize what is happening around him, he takes a look to the ground and notices a broken Unversed symbol at his feet. It only takes him seconds to realize that he broke Jib's necklace, meaning that he triggers the transformation Zip-fly and Prankster warned about. The Unversed feels his chest to see if his symbol is there, only to feel it missing, and he puts on a devilish smile as the broken symbol burns into blue flames and the man slips away into the darkness.

"Hey, get back here Jib!" shouted Eddy. "We aren't done with ya yet!"

"Eddy, we need to go after Jib!" stated Double D in a panic. "Do you recall that monster we saw back in Traverse Town?"

"Yeah, it was only a few minutes ago. Why?"

"If what Normadomus is saying is true, then Jib is transforming into the form that we saw back in Traverse Town! If we don't do something soon, Jib is going to stay like that and the future isn't going to change! We need to go after him and try to stop him from getting to Kingdom Hearts!"

"Hold on," started Ed's hat. "What if this was all set up by the Destroyer? If we fit all of the pieces together to this point, he must have a plan to lure the Keyblade deep into the Realm of Darkness to where Kingdom Hearts lies and kill Double D for the final piece. He must have known about all that has been happening before we entered and he must have come up with this plan to make sure he does get his hands on the Keyblade."

"But he said that he needs a Keyblade of Light if he wants to open the door," said Eddy. "How do we know Double D is wielding a dark Keyblade? Besides, it's better off if we go find Jib and put a stop to him."

"I agree with Eddy on this one," added Double D. "While Jib may be on to us, one way or another we need to put a stop to his plans before he plays his coup de grâce on us."

"… What is that?" asked Ed.

"Let's get moving gentlemen," said Double D, looking in the direction that Jib fade into.

OOO

After running around the dissembled Peach Creek for any signs of the Unversed, the Eds find themselves running down a street leading into the darkness. As the boys got closer to the darkness, they soon realize that they are running out of room and come to an abrupt halt at the edge of a cliff. Standing at the edge, the boys can see that there is nothing out beyond the limits other than the same darkness that is apparently the Realm of Darkness. The Eds check behind them to see the rest of what used to be Peach Creek and to look around the border before everything comes together.

"So is this really what happened to Peach Creek?" asked Double D. "Did only the town became a floating island in the darkness while the rest of the world was destroyed?"

"This was the road leading to the Jawbreaker factory," Eddy muttered mournfully. "Why could the Heartless spare us just one Jawbreaker?"

"Why are you thinking about Jawbreakers now?" the smart Ed pitched.

"Think about this, we hadn't had a single Jawbreaker other than my shield in all of the stuff we've been through so far," the greedy Ed commented, "and I've beginning to lose what a Jawbreaker tasted like. I don't know if I'll ever get the chance to taste another Jawbreaker if we're stuck in this void!"

"Well if it concerns you that badly, once we get out of here," said Double D, "I'll talk to Kevin and see if he can give us a few Jawbreakers for all of our hard work."

"But what if we don't get out of this place? What if we're stuck here like those other people and we're forced to stare not knowing that we can't save the universe from some crazed madman?"

"You mean like in that one movie I saw?" questioned the tall Ed.

"No Ed," replied both Eddy and Double D.

In the shadows of some trees, the dark figure watches the three Eds with a wide, sadistic smile. Moving through the foliage, the boys focus their attention towards the rustling trees and they head over to the trees to see if Jib is hiding there. The rustling slows down as the Eds got closer to the trees all before stopping once they approach the nearest tree. The three boys check up in the trees to see if their enemy is still hiding up in the leaves, but there is no movement or any signs of a body resting up on the limbs.

Just as they turn their backs on one tree, the figure silently launches up through the foliage and prepares to perform an attack. With shadows latching onto the figure's fists, the being locks its sight on the Eds as the being cocks back one arm. Waiting for just the right moment, the being swings his arm towards the Eds, launching the shadows to create a large shadowy fist. "Shadow Dynamic Punch!" the being shouted, calling his attack.

Once the Eds heard that call, they look behind them to notice the fist coming straight at them and they jump out of the way to allow the fists to crash into the ground. The shadows rip through the trees and destroy the surrounding areas, as the Eds escape the impact and look up to notice their attacker. Flying up in the air is the Unversed himself, Jib the Destroyer, but his appearance has changed dramatically. Along his shoulders are some spikes, the coattails are torn, his collar is widely open, his hands have become claws, and he does not have any feet.

The Eds also notice that Jib has changed his coat by going with a blue outline instead of red and he has lost some of his patterns on the coat. The Unversed has an altered face with full dark blue eyes, some blue triangles right underneath his eyes, a sadistic smile showing off razor-sharp teeth, and his light purple hair has exploded in messiness. And the most noticeable feature is the two wings on the man's back, with each wing being one half of the Unversed symbol, and strangely these wings are keeping the man up. Beyond the changes, the rest of Jib remained the same but the Eds can feel that this is a new Unversed.

"So Ed boys, what do you think of my new look?" Jib questioned, his voice little deeper. "You think this is a good look for taking over the universe once I defeat you boys here?"

"So is this the same Jib that you saw back in Traverse Town?" asked Double D in a hushed voice.

"It appears to be," answered Normadomus. "If this is the form that he took when he was conquering Traverse Town, then this is really bad."

"Yes, because this means that the future may not change if we don't do something soon," the smart Ed continued. "Since my Limit Break was the only thing to do any real harm to Jib, you proposed that I continue to use that to defeat Jib?"

"I don't know about that," said the hat. "If we can find a way to get around the loophole of his weakness to Holy, then we might have the upper hand in this fight."

"… What loophole is that?" the tall Ed asked.

"As I said, the Destroyer of Light has a weakness towards Holy, but he cancels out Light for an unknown reason. I'm willing to guess that has to do with some sort of barrier that protects him from any sort of harmful Black Magic spells. But Light is not much a Black Magic spell as it is White Magic, so he must have something protecting him against that particular spell. If we can figure out a way to expose the barrier and destroy that, then Double D here will use all that he has to put an end to this madness."

"So why can't we just bash away at Jib until that barrier breaks?" asked Eddy, deciding to get in on the conversation.

"It might work, but if this barrier behaves much like Reflect, we're in for a tough fight ahead."

"You got that right grandpa," commented the Unversed, with shadows ready to attack.

The Eds are surprised upon finding Jib right before them and they quickly raise their weapons to block an incoming attack, but from the Unversed's hands the shadows leap at the Eds with a strong force. Using a powerful version of his Shadow Wave, Jib knocks all three Eds away from the man as he continues to use the surrounding shadows to power the attack. The boys struggle to get up from the attack until all three shove their weapons into the ground and pull themselves up to touch the ground, as their legs struggle to keep them up with the strong current pushing against the Eds.

Jib watches the trio from afar with a smile on his face, and he cancels his attack to show some mercy to the Eds. Once the shadows seep into the ground, the Eds charge up to the Unversed in hope of landing a hit on him, but Jib vanishes into thin air. The boys stop in their tracks and search all around them to see where the Unversed is going to strike next, only to get the feeling of someone floating right behind them. All three spin around, swinging their weapons at once, and all three weapons hit the Unversed at the same time but Jib did not even flinch as the weapons hit him. Instead, he has a wide smile on his face and sparks of electricity jumping off of the shoulder spikes, frightening the Eds.

"Shadow Force Lightning!" cried Jib with a slight demonic tone.

The electricity intensifies as the Unversed is enveloped with the dark mass and the bolts leap out to strike the Eds. All three boys are pinned down by the lightning, leaving them no room to move their limbs, as Jib floats up higher to prepare his next attack. With shadows gathering in the space below open palms, Jib prepares himself to use his shadow fire spell when he notices Ed's hat jumping off of the boy's head. Jib speeds his charging up as Normadomus fires out a few Gravitaga rounds to bring the Unversed down to the ground. Once the fireballs are set, Jib takes these balls of fire and shoots a stream down at the ground to burn the hat, only for Normadomus to switch moves and blasts Blizzaga to cancel the shadowy fire stream.

As the two magic-wielders enter the test of strength, the Eds continue to struggle with the shadow lightning before they notice the bolts fading away. Using this opportunity to strike, the boys break free of their binds and got back up on their feet so they can help Ed's hat. However, they did not notice Jib has a free hand and the Unversed casts the second fireball down on the Eds in hopes of burning them. Eddy steps up and blocks the incoming attack with his shield, taking the strong heat of the flames, as Double D and Ed prepare to use their magic on the Unversed.

The smart Ed takes his Keyblade and aims it at the stream of fire aiming at Normadomus, and he prepares to use his Blizzard on the stream. Forming a crystal of ice in the flames, the medium Ed waits for the pressure to build as the heat slowly melts the protective shell. Jib growls at this tactic and he increases the flow of the fire, pushing the crystal and Normadomus' stream of Blizzaga back. Once the crystal is at its breaking point, the ice cracks open and the burst disrupts the stream of fire and slightly knocks all of the fighters back a few feet.

Jib shakes off this explosion as he watches the Eds come up with their next move and a bright light heading straight towards him. The Unversed catches the lightning with his hands and he knocks the lightning to the ground as he charges up his next attack. Normadomus hops back onto Ed's head and he launches a few Gravity rounds to try to bring Jib to the ground, but Jib swiftly dodges the blasts and continues to charge up his attack before unleashing it on the Eds. The attack is the same claw marks from earlier, but these swipes of shadows appear to be stronger and sharper, and the Eds got out of the way to allow the claw marks to eat away at the ground.

Once the attack dispersed, the Eds move in and they try to bring the Unversed closer to the ground. Using all of their magic moves, all three Eds and Normadomus fill the air with mana to bring Jib down. The Unversed takes the surrounding shadows and creates a helix spiral to protect him from the Gravity shots and allow the weak Fire, Thundara, Blizzard and shield attacks to do their little damage. As the dwindling damage piles up, Jib gathers some shadows and starts forming a Blizzard attack, in Double D's style, right in front of the Eds. The boys come to a stop and try to escape the attack, but the ice breaks and all three Eds are sent back flying from the shockwave.

"Like I said, this is a curb stomp here," the Unversed commented. "You three really don't have anything that can stop me, do you? The only things that I overheard are this Limit Break Double D possesses and the Gravity spell the hat owns. Come on boys, can't you use those noodles inside of you and try combining those attacks in possibly damaging me?"

Getting up from the fall, Double D and Ed's hat look at each other in the eyes and they nod simultaneously in agreement. Taking up on Jib's idea, Double D prepares his Keyblade for the magic as Normadomus charges up his Gravitaga. The Unversed soon realizes what the boys are up to and prepares his counterattack, as the hat releases his spell onto the smart Ed's Keyblade and the shaft begins to radiate a dark energy. Jib is a bit confused on why the Keyblade is glowing darkly, but his mind begins to fill up with an idea as he continues to charge up his next attack.

Once the Keyblade is set, Double D takes his weapon and starts heading right for Jib. Ed jumps in and helps launch the smart Ed up by grabbing onto the boy's jacket and tossing him up into the air. With Keyblade in hand, Double D aligns himself for the strike as the Unversed gathers enough shadows for another Shadow Punch. As Jib begins to throw his punch, Double D takes his weapon and cuts through the shadows before hitting Jib again, knocking him down all the way to the ground. The man hits the pavement hard, his back resting evenly along the ground, and he looks up to notice Eddy jumping right at him.

"All right Jib, it's time for you to go down!" shouted the greedy Ed.

"Shadow Blazing Flare!" the Unversed blared.

From the darkness of Jib's feetless pants, dark purple flames rocket out of pants legs and bellow right at the small Ed. Eddy quickly pulls his shield in front of him to block the attack, only to be knocked back by the force and absorbing some of the flames onto his shield. Jib makes his recover by rolling back and getting on all fours before his wings lift him up off the ground. Once Jib is back in the air, he takes notice of the Eds charging right towards him and he throws up a giant shadow column, cutting them as the Unversed flees from the scene to make a recovery.

In the corner of the Unversed's eye, he notices Eddy's shield coming right at him from his right side and he catches it as the weapon nears him. The man absorbs the darkness that is on the shield and adds it to his own as he takes the shield and throws it back at the approaching Eds, only this time Eddy catches his shield instead of getting hit. With all three Eds chasing after the escaping Unversed, all while the man is planning on what move he is going to use next. Gathering shadows, the Unversed dodges the lightning of Ed's Thundara and the fires of Double D's Fire.

Flying up into the skies and then facing the Eds, Jib takes the shadows and forms a triple-barrel cannon. Aiming the cannon at the approaching Eds, Jib quickly unloads the shadow weapon in rapid succession, turning the cannon into a machine gun-like weapon. The Eds look up to notice a barrage of shadow cannonballs hailing down right onto them, and all three knock the shadows away from them as Double D and Eddy gather some of the shadows onto their weapons. As Jib continues to rain his barrage on the Eds, Double D cuts through the shadows with one good swipe, using the darkness that has gathered on his blade and sends the darkness right back at the Unversed.

Jib cancels his current attack and reaches his arms to grab onto the incoming wave of darkness to then use this darkness as another Shadow Wave attack. All three Eds brace themselves as the attack hits them, dragging them only a few inches as the current presses against them. Normadomus tries once again at bringing Jib down with Gravity, only now getting a successful hit in after failures, and the Unversed cancels his attack as soon he got hit with the attack. As the shadows pass by them, the Eds remove their weapons from the ground and rushes up to Jib so they can continue beating him until they can find a way through his protective shells.

The Unversed struggles to get back up, getting the feeling that he is losing his steam and is also taken some heavy damage from Double D's last attack. As the man flies away from the Eds, he takes the surrounding shadows and adds them to his power, increasing his strength, but he knows that the Eds will break through his shells and will use their Light spell to bring him down. Just as Jib is about to add more darkness to his being, Double D charges up with his Rush Arcane and starts beating away at Jib before knocking the Unversed into the air and sending him back down to the ground.

Once on the ground, Jib got back up using the lift from his wings and he blocks the incoming attacks from Eddy and Ed. Double D drops down and throws his Keyblade into the mix, adding on to the difficulty of Jib trying to defend. Casting another helix spiral of shadows around the Unversed, Jib protects himself from the Eds' weapons, until Ed's hat unleashes another Gravitaga at the Unversed. The spell passes through the shadows and hits the man, sending him back with an invisible pull and the Eds unleash their powerful spells onto the Unversed to help get rid of the shells.

With damage piling up, Jib gathers what darkness he has on him and the surrounding shadows to create a bubble to disperse the magic hitting the Unversed. Now floating back in the air, Jib starts gathering the shadows faster now, increasing his power as his body sparks with electricity. The Eds know that he is going to use Shadow Force Lightning on the boys and they quickly formulate a plan to attract the lightning elsewhere while Jib is using his shadow attack. Once the Unversed unleashed the lightning, Ed raises his staff up to catch the shadows and then slams the staff into the ground, forcing the weapon as a lightning rod, leaving Double D and Eddy to head for Jib.

The Unversed lets out a roar as he takes more shadows to start his next attack. The air begins to chill around the Eds, meaning Jib is going for his ice attack. Eddy decides to stay behind and take the damage for the attack, leaving Double D to deal the final damage. Once the ice forms, the medium Ed raises his Keyblade and starts to gather some light onto the shaft, hoping to use that to bring an end to this fight despite Jib having a protective shell covering him. The Unversed growls at the approaching Ed boy and he uses the shadows around him to throw up several columns to block Double D, but the Keyblader slices clean through the columns to get right at Jib.

… And the Keyblade makes contact. The Eds and Jib can hear the sound of something breaking and the Unversed is sent flying across the street, tumbling on top of the hard pavement as the Eds let out a cheer in getting through the barrier. Jib comes to a stop, bruised from rolling across asphalt, and he struggles to get back up, coughing harshly as he notices the Eds approaching him. Feeling his strength failing him, the Unversed collapses to the ground as he watches Double D place the Keyblade right under his neck.

"OK Jib, it's time that you give up," said Double D. "We would like to put this all behind us, and that you will give up on your plan on getting Kingdom Hearts. So I am going to use my Keyblade and slay you so we can end all of this right here."

Flashing the Eds a wicked smile, the Unversed takes the moment to slip into the ground and lets out an evil laugh echoing all around the boys. The Eds check around to see where Jib is hiding, feeling the air tensing up around, and they press their backs against each other to get a full circle of sight. "Great, now where did he go?" the small Ed grunted.

"Let's hope that Jib doesn't surprise us," answered the smart Ed. "As long as we stick together like this, there's no way that Jib is going to take us by sur—"

"Shadow Mind Snare!" shouted Jib.

The Eds break away from their formation and start looking around to see where Jib is going to land his move, not knowing where he is going to strike. Double D takes a few steps back and he begins to feel a surge of electricity entering his head and flowing throughout his body. The others notice Double D in this trap and they rush to aid him, but Jib cast up a shadow wall to prevent them from interfering with the spell. The Unversed release his grip on the Ed, allowing Double D to get on his knees and collapse on the ground.

"Double D!" shouted Ed, rushing up to his fallen friend. "Hat, can you do your Cure thing?"

"I don't think that I can heal this," Normadomus said. "It appears that his mind is sent to another place, so there's nothing I can do to save him."

"Well, there's got to be something we can…"

"Shadow Mind Snare!" echoed Jib, appearing right behind Eddy and canceling his sentence short. The Unversed evenly spaces his hands from Eddy's head and he sends out bolts of electricity throughout the small Ed's head. The boy lets out a shriek in pain as Jib continues to pump electricity into the Ed's mind, all before canceling the attack and the body plops to the ground. With a sadistic smile on his face, Jib fades back into the background, leaving only the tall Ed to fend for himself.

"Eddy… Double D… Hat, what's going on!" stated Ed.

"How should I know!" the wizard hat harshly responded. "As far as I know, the Destroyer of Light has taken out your friends without any warning! Their conditions are unknown and the Unversed is surfing around in negative space. You really think that I can come up with a reasonable idea when we should be concern for ourselves at the moment?"

"But what about the others?" asked the tall Ed in a worrisome tone.

"Look, I will try to help them out, but right now we need to prepare ourselves for when the Destroyer is going to strike. Keep your eyes open boy; we need to be alert for as long as we…"

"Shadow Mind Snare!" shouted Jib once again, this time appearing in front of Ed and using both hands to shock Ed and Normadomus.

With electricity pumping out of the Unversed's hands, Ed and Normadomus falls victim to the same attack as Eddy and Double D. With nothing to help them out of this situation, their bodies begin to fail as Jib finishes his attack and watches the wizard pair drop to the ground limp. Now with the Ed boys down, the Unversed snickers evilly before letting out a hysterical laugh as he reaches down to grab the Keyblade from Double D's hand and watches it turn back into Kingdom Key.

"Well it's far from killing him, but putting him in an unconscious state sure does help in my mission into unlocking Kingdom…"

Before Jib can finish his sentence, he begins to feel what kind of Keyblade Double D's weapon is and he tosses the weapon down in disgust. All this time he has been seeking out is another key of darkness while guessing that the smart Ed had a key of light on him all this time. The Unversed checked around his surroundings to find Peach Creek is breaking apart from the man absorbing a large amount of darkness for his attacks, and with only a wide smile on his face, Jib glances down on the Eds as their bodies begin to sink down into a growing puddle of shadows.

"All right Ed boys, the time has come for all four of us to take a ride deeper into the Realm of Darkness," the Unversed sadistically stated. "Next stop: Kingdom Hearts!"

* * *

… Two words can be said right now: Mind Rape!

Sorry, that needed to be said. Anyway, I'm just trying to keep the battle going. It's not like I want to end it there in the first place. That's just wrong of me to end it like that. … I mean end the story right there and then. But at least you know that this is still going on, hence the "Part I" in the title.

So as for what I am going for with Jib in this chapter… OK, he is imaginary, so the odds of him looking like that are virtually slim to impossible. But that doesn't mean that he can change his form on the whim. Besides, this is fan-fiction: anything goes. I could make Jib into a hideous monster if I wanted to (since Ed was the one that "made" him up), but I want to go with a more human look before the very last scene. And somehow I'm imagining his voice to be either Troy Baker's Van Kliess or Tim Curry in general. I really like the way Van Kliess sounds, but it's hard to choose between the two.

And just to let you know: I'm never going to show you what he looks like. Other than describing, the only people that are going to see him are the ones that previewed this story. Sorry to you all, but his true identity will never be reveal! … Yeah right, I'm going to be showing him off once I am done with this story.

And for the moves… think of it as a theme. I know I have the Shade move, but there is a difference between that and Shadow, and that's not counting the spelling. Ed's Shade is more out of control and random, whereas Jib's Shadow is more control and direct, meaning that when Ed performs Shade, it is nothing compare to Jib's Shadow. And for the difference in Jib's moves when he went into stage two… beefed up version of the moves, including the Mind Snare. Won't it be awesome if there is such a thing as a Gatling cannon?

So once again I like for you to review, thank you very much. Don't you worry, we are nearing the end of this story and I am going to pull off my biggest boss battle yet!


	28. Act IV, Ch 28: vs the Destroyer, part 2

All right, here it is… the grand final battle to this highly long waited chapter of mine! Once before I had this chapter all ready to go, it got erased. I had to retype the whole thing, but I hold it off for a long time, all to come for this moment. The day this originally was planned to end and by God I will make this a grand finale you ever seen in a fan-fiction!

Yes, after a two year long wait, this time we'll see the champion stood, the rest saw the better. This here is the second Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, where only one will survive; I wonder who it will be.

This is going to be long folks… so sit back and enjoy the ride.

Legal Notes: **I **_**DO NOT**_** own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** or **_**Kingdom Hearts**_**, or any other references. The Ed boys and the cul-de-sac children are owned by Danny Antonucci and AKA Cartoons, and the world, weapons, currency and characters of the **_**Kingdom Hearts**_** universe are owned by Square Enix, while everything else is copyrighted by their respective creators. Any original content is credited by me, Cory of PRIVATE Corp, or any guest creator.**

* * *

Chapter Twenty Eight: The Eds vs. Jib the Destroyer, part II

OOO

There was only darkness.

The sound of groaning echoed off in the dark, this sound emitting from the smallest member of the Ed boys, and a body rose up from its slumber. The Defender felt sore all over, as if it hit something hard, and he rubbed his eyes to help see better. With his eyes free of obstruction, the Ed looked around his setting to see where he was at, but sadly found himself stuck in the middle of black. If anything, there was some light to help him see a little bit around him, but nothing to tell what was waiting in the darkness.

Getting up onto his feet, Eddy began to wander about, trying to see where in this darkness he is at. As he is walking, the light followed his moves, keeping a steady beam to help the boy see beyond his spot. Even then, there was nothing in the darkness. No sign of his friends, no signs of Jib, no signs of Peach Creek, not even signs of anything else. The boy is alone. His speed picked up, running around frantically in hopes of finding someone or something to help him. If only he could find his friends. Maybe then he could figure out where they are and how they could get out of this place.

"Isn't this a surprise? Nice to see you again, Ed boy…"

Eddy flinched. He spun around and found the source of the voice, a voice he once remembered from some time ago. A voice he wished he would forget. Sitting some distance before him, a yellow outline of a tall man with a spiky mane and dressed in working clothes. What's unusual about him is that the man had no color to him other than the outlines, and how the man looks feline in appearance. And his left hand looked different from his right, having three fingers instead of five and it looks bionic in design. And swaying behind him is a long, flowing cat tail with the small brush of fur on the tip.

"It's certainly been a long time since we last met," the man casually purred, speaking in a sophisticated tone. "What has it been? Two years? Or has it been longer than that? Can you help refresh my memory?"

The boy took a few cautiously steps back, his emotions mixed about the man before him. Memories began to flood his mind, filling up with all the ones featuring this man. All of those memories with this man got the Ed wanting to grab his shield and strike him down, remembering all of those evil things during the boy's tenure. A hand reached behind and started unhooking the shield from his back, getting it in front of him and ready to use.

"Gan… Gandolfini…" Eddy growled.

"Ah, so you remembered my name? That's good to hear," said the cat man. "I thought for certain you would have forgotten about me and all that has happened during the games."

"And I wished I forgot," said the Ed boy, raising his shield up. "You should have died in that explosion. Why are you here?"

The cat man leaned back in his invisible chair, and his real arm reached to the side to grab a glass. "To tell you the truth, I got nothing," he answered. "The last I can remember is me waiting in line for a trip to Hell. Fitting considering what I've done in my time."

"And you should," Eddy growled angrily, his anger boiling. "What you did to us was inexcusable and I swear if the others were here…"

"And they aren't. Such a pity Eddy," the tion purred, getting up from his seat. "To think that you were the leader of the rising Team Cul-de-Sac, and now you're cowering in fear without the two of them at your side."

The Defender's rage continued to boil inside of the boy. There's something about the tion's tone that wants to fight him, but then that's maybe what Gandolfini wants. Knowing the tion, he wants to get the boy angry and have him fight, all for the simple amusement of a simple-minded audience wanting violence and bloodshed. If he did give in and strike the man, it will only be a matter time before Eddy is lying on his back dead from his pitiful rage.

"You know, you and I do share something in common," said Gandolfini. "We both have a thing for money, but our intentions are different. You want to use the money to buy all the sweets in the world, while I want to use my profit to create my empire."

"No, you're not me," said Eddy. "Why would I ever be like you? You just wanted to create a robot army to take over the universe."

"And honestly that was something only a true madman was capable of. I didn't think that my little plan of creating the Mechanical Reapers and using them as a form of population control, and from there I could build an empire that I see fit."

"You were a prince once, right?"

"Yes, and I had all the potentials of ruling my kingdom. I lost it to my sister. She proven herself to be stronger than me and a much better ruler, and I grew jealous. I felt the need to prove her that I could be a better ruler than what my people see in her. My genius has allowed me to build these creations, to help me achieve my perfect empire, and I had to work from scratch to earn the bolts needed for that perfect army."

"And that's why you made Dreadzone?"

"This arm came into my life simply by chance," said Gandolfini, placing his real arm on his prosthetic. "If it weren't for it, I would be scrapping the universe for metal to rebuild the old Reapers into the new generation. Then it'll still be a long road to the Transmorphers, to the real Mechanical Reapers, and to the empire I long crave for. And this would have gave me that dream if it wasn't for you boys!"

Eddy gripped his shield's handle tighter, waiting for the right moment to strike. He began to wonder if his attacks would work on a projection of the former leader of Dreadzone. There's also the fact that the man has gone mad with power and lost all sense during his final days, so there's isn't a chance that the Ed could reason with the man. The only thing he can do is lower his guard, drop his shield, and consider defeat to Gandolfini.

"Hm? You're not going to fight?"

"Why should I?" he replied. "After all, you forced all of us to fight in those stupid games and I'm getting tired of this fighting here. I just want to put an end to all of this and just go home."

"That's too bad Eddy…" the tion extended his arms down and pulled out some claws from both hands, shocking the boy. "You're here for a reason and I can't let you go until His mission is completed."

Eddy's eyebrows went up in confusion, wondering who "His" is until he remembers there is a tion hell-bent on slicing the Ed into ribbons charging right at him. Eddy quickly bent down and raised his shield, deflecting a claw swipe and was knocked back by the blow. Skidding to a stop, the Defender found he had enough distance between him and the angry tion, so he decided to throw his shield down and skid off to escape the crazy being. However this was proven to be a problem…

As the Ed skate into the darkness, he found himself wandering about with no clue where he's heading, and the tion that was distances behind him is now alongside him. To add on to this, outlines of robotics are standing side by side, forming a wall of yellow around the Ed boy. Taking a sharp turn to his left, Eddy made his way towards the wall and hoping to break through it. However, upon reaching the wall, one of the robots morphed its legs into a ramp and launched the Ed back, causing him to fall off his shield and hit the ground hard.

"There's no use escaping Eddy," said the tion. "You and your friends are trapped here, waiting for you to die, and I'm going to make sure that you get oust before the others finish their fights."

Now knowing that the others are here, Eddy reached for his shield and got back up on his feet. Adjusting his hat, the Ed got his line of sight fixed on the tion and aiming to slice the man in half. If this isn't the real Gandolfini and defeating him will help get rid of these robots, then fighting him is the only way to go. Eddy loosened his grip on his shield, grabbing onto a yo-yo from his pocket, and he gave his shield one good toss right at Gandolfini, its heavy bottom aiming right at him.

The shield was deflected, flying up into the air before landing in the ground. Eddy removed his shield and watched Gandolfini to see what his next move is. The tion closed in on the Ed and swiped both claws at him, scrapping across the surface of Eddy's shield. The Defender then took his shield and swing it like a bat, leaving him open for a punch to the side and be blown across the battlefield.

Eddy hit the ground and started rolling away from the tion, with his mind saying this was good but the robots were saying otherwise. A few gathered where the Ed was heading and morphed into a ramp, creating a curve to launch the Ed back, and Eddy hit the ramp to be launch into the air. Now flying, he recovered from his blow and grabbed his shield, getting into position where's right above Gandolfini's head. Eddy shifted his weight down and began his fall, shield right above his head and ready to swing.

Gandolfini looked above and found the Ed heading right down on him. The tion raised his real hand and backhanded the boy with no effort. Once knocked back, Eddy rolled across the ground and he stuck his shield into the black ground, stopping him from going flying. Getting back on his feet, Eddy noticed Gandolfini heading right towards him again, the look of killing burning in his eyes, and the Ed decided on dodging instead of attacking the tion.

Bending low enough, Gandolfini leapt off of his feet and swiped at the Ed, only to go flying over the Defender. During this, Eddy took his yo-yo and wrapped it around the prosthetic arm. With a good grip on the string, Eddy stopped Gandolfini in his tracks, and he raised his shield up to get it ready to throw it. However, the tion took his tied up arm and pulled the small Ed in to strike him. And this is what the small Ed wanted to do in the first place.

Dragging his shield across the ground, Eddy waits for the right moment to raise it and strike. The tion got his real arm ready to slash the Ed, waiting for that moment to put an end to the boy. Eddy got his shield up and tossed it forward, sending it flying forward as hard as he can. The shield made its way up to Gandolfini and pierced right through him, cutting through the outline like butter. The outline began to ripple, the man smiling widely, and Eddy watched his former enemy fade into the darkness.

"Nicely done Ed boy," said the tion gleefully. "However this is just the beginning for you. The others are still out there, and then there's the matter that's waiting outside of this darkness."

Eddy began asking the fading tion about what is going on, but he lost his chance when Gandolfini faded into the darkness. Now alone, the Ed looked around to see the robots fading into the darkness, following their master with him to forgotten memories. The light above Eddy also went out, leaving him totally in the literal dark. The small Ed grabbed his shield from the ground and placed it on his back, getting ready for his next fight.

"_One Down, Two to Go…_"

Eddy looked around in the dark, wondering where the source of the monotonous voice. He also wondered who said this until he heard the sound of laughing coming from the distance. Eddy noticed some green light where the laughing came from and in the middle of this green is a tall boy running away from something. The Defender recognized who is in the light and started heading towards where the boy is running, only to hit something hard. Eddy rubbed against what he hit, wondering why there's an invisible wall blocking his path, and he looked at the center of the green light to see who it was.

"Ed!" shouted Eddy, pounding away at the invisible wall. "Ed, it's me!"

The tall Ed boy looked to his left, seeing Eddy standing in the dark and pounding away at nothing. Coming to a stop, Ed gave a quick wave before noticing a bolt of lightning coming dangerously close and dodging it. Ed got back to his running, getting away from a green outline of a tall male wearing a long coat firing purple-colored magic spells from his hands. Eddy's anger began to rise as the evil imaginary friend took a moment to stop and talk with the small Ed boy.

"Oh, hello Eddy!" stated the shadow excitedly. "Did you enjoy my little test for you?"

"Jib, did you do all of this?" hissed Eddy. "What did you do to us?"

The shadow leaned back in his hovered position, placing a hand on his chin and began thinking about what has happened. "Honestly, I haven't got a clue," Jib answered, a hand pointing at Ed and shooting off magic. "Last thing I remembered was creating a giant shadow to suck you guys in and then I found myself wandering this place with two other strange individuals and you three."

"So… you have no idea on why we're stuck in this place," Eddy flatly stated.

"Nah, I know what I did here. It's just that I don't want to explain it to you or to Ed," Jib teased mischievously.

"Then how come I can't get to Ed and help him? And where's Double D!?"

The imaginary friend crossed his arms and laughed mischievously. Behind him, Ed is running around dodging various spells coming out of Jib's glowing hands. "Oh Eddy, do you really think I'm going to let you get in the way of my fun?" he questioned. "I can't allow you to mess with my fight with Ed, and I can't allow you or Ed to get involve in Double D's fight. If I do, I feel like it ruins this little test I have going to see if you're really worthy of defeating the final boss."

"But aren't you the final boss?" asked Ed.

"True, but that's only if you get outta here alive," said Jib, pointing at the tall Ed and letting another bolt of lightning out at the Ed. "Now Eddy, you're going to be a good boy and stand there while I tear Ed a new one."

"No Jib, I don't need any new holes!" the tall Ed stated hastily, running as fast as he can.

Jib turned around and watched his "creator" run about trying to escape a bunch of deadly attacks. "Nice try Ed, but you can't escape from here!" he proclaimed. "As long as the both of us are still alive, you'll never be leaving this place!"

The green outline clapped his hands together and got them glowing. Separating his hands, a mixture of fire, electricity and ice formed between the spaces of his hands. Jib took his attack and launched it at the running Ed and the boy weaved through the magic spells to prevent getting hurt. Eddy can't help but watch from behind the invisible wall, wanting to get through and help Ed out of his predicament, but then he remembers a small detail. Looking at Ed's hat, he noticed that Normadomus isn't awake and doing anything to protect the Ed from the spells.

"Hey Ed, can't you get your hat to help you win this fight?" he pitched.

"I tried everything I could to wake my hat up," Ed explained, "but nothing's working on him! I think he's dead!"

"Nope, he's not dead," Jib answered nonchalantly. "I put him in a deep sleep, keeping his consciousness out of this world so he doesn't help you with my fight and stop us from completing His mission."

Once again, that "His" is brought up, making Eddy wonder who this man is and why is he being brought up. Gandolfini mentioned "His" during their fight, but the Defender figured he didn't know much about this mysterious person. Jib may know more, with maybe perhaps his creator being "His." But then, could it be that this "His" be HIM the demon from Townsville? No, something that flamboyantly evil couldn't have made Jib who he is and his current crazy state, so this is something that he needs Jib alive for.

Ed continued on with his running, dodging all of the spells coming from Jib. During his running, something in his head went off and got the Ed stopped in his track and pulling his staff from his jacket. Turning around to face Jib, Ed took his staff and got it twirling, creating his signature electrical attack from the book tip. Jib stopped his attacks and watched his former friend tried to do his best to stop him.

The tall Ed took his charged up staff and unleashed its full power, raising up high into the sky and letting the lightning reach up before arching down. Jib extended his arms out and took the attack head on, laughing maniacally as the electricity flowed throughout his body. The imaginary friend extended a hand out and let the lightning flow right back at the Ed boy and completing a circle. Ed stood there, taking in his own attack and he smiled brightly as he cut off his attack. Jib floated there in confusion, wondering why the Ed is still standing from something so powerful, but he brushed off his attack to continue on with his mission.

"You know, I can't decide whether you should live or die," said the shadow casually. "Oh you'll probably go to Heaven, so please don't hang your head and cry."

"Uh, since when did you get a British accent and sing like a crazy blond with a laser screwdriver?" Ed remarked.

"Yeah, when did you get that British accent?" Eddy added. "It's just… why British?"

"Haven't you boys heard the Mean Brit trope?" The two Ed boys looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Jib was talking about. The shadow placed a hand to his face and let out a sigh. "Honestly, I got some residue from Ed's memories after he watched some British sci-fi shows when I came to Peach Creek. I experimented with the accents and I chose this because it sounds evil."

Even in this total darkness, there is that awkward silence that plagues the Eds wherever they go. Eddy has a cross look on his face while Ed had a blank look to match his confusion. "You're a weird character," Eddy flatly commented.

"Yeah, but that doesn't stop me from killing you three for the Keys of Light and Darkness."

Hands glowing brightly and burning with flames, Jib takes his purple fire and started creating large fireballs. The shadow levitated the fireballs above him and pointed right at the magician Ed, silently ordering his fireballs to shoot mini flames at the Ed. Taking his staff, Ed blocked the attacks and gathered the flames, building up his own fire spell while the fireballs lingering above Jib start to shrink in size. Once the fireballs vanished into the darkness, Ed took his fiery-tipped staff and swung it around, sending his attack right at Jib.

The shadow threw both arms forward and absorbed the fireball into his hands. Tightening his hands into fists, Jib took his olds flames and strengthens them back up to full power, getting them burning brightly than previously. Ed stood there wondering what to do next. None of his attacks are working, and the only thing he can think of is distracting Jib and lowering his guard. With that in mind, Ed reached into his coat and pulled out a stick of butter, with half of it unwrapped and melting slightly, and he turned to Jib with an angry look on his face.

"Eat butter, zombie!"

The imaginary friend stopped his attack and watched the butter fly towards his face. "Butter?" he echoed. "Are you going to stop me with…?" Instead of moving, the stick of butter hits Jib in the face and splattered all over. He grabbed his face and started smearing the butter all over his face. "Oh great Creator, why is this warm!?" he shouted. "Ed, this is freaking disgusting!"

"Ed, now's your chance!" ordered Eddy.

Now with a large opportunity to strike, Ed began charging up another electrical attack and this time he is going to bash his staff on top of Jib's head. He got running, holding his staff to allow the electricity continues building. The imaginary friend wiped some butter away from an eye and noticed Ed running up towards him, his ball of lightning getting bigger with each step forward. Jib began to freak when he saw the lightning ball as big as Ed, and the tall Ed jumped up, lifting his sparking staff above him and the boy swung his weapon down on top of Jib's head.

On contact, the lightning enveloped both beings and exploded outwards, creating a mushroom cloud-like tower. Eddy watched the tower of lightning sparked all out, with some bolts heading in his direction. The wall that separated him from Ed lit up and scattered, telling him that Ed defeated Jib. When the wall cleared, Eddy rushed over to where Ed is, finding the boy is still alive from the large electrical explosion, and Jib is rippling from the impact.

"All right Jib, you're gonna tell us how to get out of this place," said Eddy, lowing his shield down, "and you're going to tell us who 'He' is."

The Eds waited there, expecting Jib to pull off one more attack, but "I've got to hand it to you, you've played by all the same rules," the shadow commented. "It takes the truth to fool me and now you've made me angry!"

Both Eds looked at each other in confusion, wondering what Jib was saying, and they looked back at Jib to see him fading away. They tried grabbing on to his fading body, hoping they can keep him longer to answer their questions, but the shadow slipped between their fingers and disappeared. Now alone, the Eds began to search about for their lost friend, thinking that he shouldn't be too far away from where the two are.

"_Two Down, One to Go_."

"Who said that Eddy?" asked Ed, his head twisting around to find the source of the voice.

"I don't have the slightest clue," the Defender answered. He looked down at Ed's jacket to find a stain where the butter was and he looked up at Ed to ask him about it. "Ed, why did you throw that stick of butter at Jib?"

Ed looked down at his pocket where he kept the stick and put a hand in there to get whatever remains of the butter. "I saw it used elsewhere that had it stop zombies," the tall wizard explained. "I usually keep some extra in case we might run into some."

The short Defender looked up at his tall friend with a slight confused look, but then realized something peculiar. "Ed, I'm kinda amazed that you're getting smarter in these stories."

A sudden gust of strong wind blew right by the Eds, startling them from its sudden presence. In the mix of the wind, a sense of evil brushed against their skin, making them shiver from its corrupted feel. There was something familiar to this strange evil, and it felt fairly fresh to the boys. They looked around to see where this wind is coming from, searching through the darkness, and they noticed something red and powerful in the distance.

In front of them, a flaming body with a red outline is hovering motionlessly over a downed body. The Eds took a good look at the figure on the ground and recognized who was lying there. There laid Double D, the Keyblade wielder, lying flat on the ground and not moving, with his Keyblade was sticking in the ground right beside his body. Both Eds began to fear for the worst, thinking their friend is finished by this strange being, and Ed is not taking it lightly.

"Double D!" shouted Ed, rushing up to go help his friend. Eddy reached out and tried to stop his tall friend. "No Ed, you can't help him!" the short Ed stated.

The tall wizard hit the invisible wall hard, stopping in his track, and he continued on running in place in hopes of getting to his fallen friend. Eddy came up from behind and starts pulling on the Ed to get him away, but he couldn't get Ed off of the wall.

The two Eds pulled back from the wall to look at their unconscious friend, wondering if he was still alive, before their gaze went up to the outline hovering above. Unlike the others, there was hardly inside of the thick red outline, save for the two glaring almonds that were the man's eyes. And unlike the other two, there was hardly any moment coming from the man, other than the flickering coming off his flaming hair and the gentle breeze brush pushing against his scarf.

"You… what did you do to him!?" shouted the small Ed in rage.

The outline took his gaze off of the fallen boy and locked it on the two angry Eds. "Oh, it's the two of you meddling children," he commented with little emotion. "Are you here to see me put an end to your friend?"

"What did you do to Double D?!" proclaimed Ed, on the verge of tears.

"It was the same thing I was about to do to him back when you two rudely interrupted me back some time ago. I vowed that our last encounter was not the last we will meet, and now I can finally finish my mission."

Both Eds felt a surge of anger and adrenaline coursing through their bodies, their weapons in hand ready to fight. "We're not going to let you touch a hair on Double D!" Eddy shouted.

"And what makes you think you are in a position to stop me?" the outline asked. "Do you believe that you have the strength needed to bring me down? This boy here used everything, but to no avail."

The two Eds backed away from the invisible wall and began figuring out a plan on how to stop this man. Eddy knows it is impossible to get through the wall, but they need to do something before the Man in Shadows can kill Double D. But what can they do? Blunt force isn't working for either Eds and the tall Ed tried using some of his spells on the wall. Everything they have isn't helping them save their friend from his impending death.

The Man in Shadow lifted Double D off the ground with the aid of shadowy tentacles, propping the boy up straight. Two shadows wrapped around the boy's body tightly while other snake-like shadows slithered back and prepare for the final blow. The shadows split apart and narrowed their tips into sharp spikes, each tentacle forming into slithering forks. With the outlines of the spiked tentacles ready to sever Double D, the other two Eds look on in fear and step up their attempts to break through the wall and stop the death.

"And now Ed boys, you get to see your friend die before my being, and you are next in line."

A small spark inside the medium Ed caused him to open up an eye. From his blurred vision, he can see the red outlines of shadows getting ready to pierce through his body. Feeling a surge in him, Double D throws his strong hand down at his Keyblade and calls it towards him, getting the sword in his grasp before the shadows strike. In a second, the boy slashed through the shadows holding him and blocking the incoming attacks, pushing him back to create some space between him and the outline.

"You still have energy left to fight?" the man noted, his shadows closing on him to form a barrier. "Impressive. Normally everyone that I have encountered had died by my shadows by now. And you still have energy left in you to fight?"

"All right Double D!" stated Eddy excitedly, ecstatic to see his friend back up on his feet. "Show this freak who's the Keyblade master here!"

However, the Keyblade wielding Ed began to show his exhaustion from his fighting with the Man in Shadows. His chest is moving in and out pretty rapidly, his arms were dangling lifelessly at his sides, and his legs are on the verge of collapsing. The other Eds can tell that Double D used everything to survive against the Man in Shadows, and now they are going to watch their friend die before their eyes. Seeing their friend like this got them to push themselves harder to get through the invisible barrier and attack the outline.

"I'm sorry guys, but I don't think I can make it," said the smart Ed. "I'm down to the wire and he's proven to be stronger than we can imagine."

"Don't say that!" Ed shouted, once again building tears. "We can help you! Let us get through so we can beat this man!"

"I'm really grateful that you two are here, and I do want you to fight alongside me…" He looked up at the outline with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "But I have to finish this fight alone. He said that we can't fight together for this…"

"Like he's going to stop us!" stated Eddy, ramming his shield into the wall.

With the two Ed bashing away, Double D kept his eyes on the Man in Shadows, who was getting his shadows ready to attack. The medium Ed raised his Keyblade up in defense and waits for the outline to attack. The shadows move forward, each of the sharpen spikes aiming at exposed parts of the boy, and the Ed continued to hold his guard up for the right moment. One second, and the boy dodged the attack in a flash of light, causing the Eds to freak out from the sudden disappearance of their friend and the incoming shadowy spikes heading right towards them.

The Man in Shadows retracts his attack and focuses it behind him without looking or turning around. Double D continues his light jumping technique on the shadows, dodging them within inches of him while getting closer to the outline. The others watch the Keyblader nimbly make his way through the shadows, surprised that he is still able to hold his own in this fight despite being shown on the verge of collapsing. With their friend continuing to fight on, Eddy and Ed step up their efforts to get on the other side and join in on the fight.

The outline is getting mad that his prey wasn't going down like he was expecting, and their fight has prolonged thanks to Double D's determination and the intervention of the Ed boys. Pulling back the shadows to his side, the Man in Shadows gathered some energy and combined his shadows to form one large spike. The Eds look on with fear as the outline took his new tool and shoots it at the medium Ed. Double D raised his Keyblade up again but he noticed that the shadow wasn't going to be stopped by just his weapon alone, so he could use his Keyblade's Limit Break to counter this attack.

However, instead of countering the shadow, there was a bright light when the two made contact. Everyone lost their sight, making them wonder what was going on. Even the one who was attacking the Ed was wondering what was happening. There was also a strange sensation in the air, like something was added to change the course of the fight. When the light dim, Double D was still standing from the attack, showing no signs of damage, let there was something strange about him. Everyone had their eyes on what was in Double D's hands, with the Eds looking surprised and the Man in Shadows looking horrified.

Joining alongside Joker's Wild, taking the boy's former empty hand is another Keyblade. Unlike the simplistic design of the boy's primary weapon, this new Keyblade has a more elaborate concept to its guard and blade. In fact, the blade is made up of narrow arcs connected together, with a very narrow rod holding the three parts of the blade up. There was something enchanted about this weapon, with some of its various blues glowing the colors of the boy's known spells. Its keychain has a sun-like pattern with blue rays coming off of an orange core, hanging freely by a silver chain.

_Wisdom's Glory_

Double D pulled the new weapon closer to his face and he tilted it around to get a better look at it. There was also a sense of magical energy flowing into him from his new Keyblade, as if it was giving him a boost of magic to help make stronger spells. Taking his new weapon, the Ed gives his less used arm a few swings to get a feel and so far he is happy with the new addition, even if it was a sudden surprise. However, there was one individual who wasn't happy with this change. The Eds look over to find the outline of the Man in Shadows shaking violently, showing more movements than what the boys recall, and his eyes are locked on the shiny blue Keyblade.

"Wha… what is that!?" the Man in Shadows screamed. "What sort of madness is this?!"

"So this is the Keyblade everyone was been waiting for…" said Double D, mesmerized by the beauty of his new weapon.

"You think this was spoiled a long time ago that you'll be getting this," said Eddy. "It's kinda long overdue for you to get this thing, and now you have it."

"I guess, but still… I am weilding two Keyblades at once…"

Double D's mind was cut off by the sudden rush of shadows at him. Quickly raising both Keyblades, the smart Ed blocked the barrage of shadow spikes being thrown at him, cutting through the outlines as fast as he can. Feeling the surge of magic flowing through him, Double D waits for an opening that will allow him to use his new boost to use a spell on the Man in Shadows. After a few seconds, the boy gathered a few sparks of electricity onto Joker's Wild and then unleashes his attack on the shadows, dispersing the spikes away from the boy.

Once the field is clear, Double D took the opportunity to get a Fire spell going on Wisdom's Glory and aim it at the Man in Shadows. During the charge up, the outline gathered up more shadows for the next attack and he brought the shadows to protect himself from the incoming fireball. The boy fired his new fireball and watches his new powered-up attack hit the shadowy barrier, noticing the flames eating away at the shadows. The Man in Shadows let out a small growl, getting more irritated by the prolonging battle.

"This is getting tedious," said the Man in Shadows, his voice coming off as a growl. "I am growing tired of you refusing to die. Why do you keep on fighting?"

"Because we are fighting for not only for us, but for our friends, families and our home," said Double D, pulling both Keyblades to his side. "My friends and I were put on this journey to rescue our home from the darkness and save our friends, and we're going to do so once we escape from this place!"

"Do you have any idea what you are dealing with?!" shouted the outline, his body flaring up. "You have gotten yourselves into a bigger mess than you anticipated. Instead of me completing my simple goal, you boys had to come in and interfere with my plan! All this time I was on the verge of success, but you three refuse to die by all the obstacles I put in your way! Do any of you know who I am!?

"I am the master of the blackness! I am the harbinger of the soullessness nights! I am the controller of the eternal darkness! I am the Man in Shadows! I… _Am… THE_ _**ALL-MIGHTY!**_"

A screeching roar bellowed out of the outline's mouth as his whole being starts bubbling rapidly. All three Eds step back in fear as the man's arms folded from his body and then collapsing on all fours. The red outline began morphing from something of a man and into an outline of a monster of some kind. The head lost its flaming top, going for a smoother look, and it also lost its eyes, with its only feature being a mouth filled with sharp teeth. The rest of its body is transforming as well, but most of it is hidden in the darkness, with the outline showing what was sticking out of the monster. Once completed, the monster rose up above the Ed boys, towering high above as all three look up in horror.

Another loud screech echoed throughout the darkness as the monster looked down at the Eds and bear its teeth at the Keyblade wielder. Taking a clawed hand, it swooped down on Double D, hoping to crush the boy underneath. However, Double D dodged the hand and started running away from the monster, trying to get some distance for him to use some attacks. From the monster, shadow tentacles emerge from the arms and charge at the Ed boy, and the Keyblade wielder got both weapons swinging to cut through all of what's being thrown at him.

The other Eds cheer on for Double D to win this fight as he continues to defend himself against the barrage of shadows heading towards him. With a few instances of opening to fire some magic spells, he feels like he is getting closer and closer to losing this fight when he remembers that he has his Limit Breaks. Getting through the attacks, Double D beat through all of the shadows and knock the monster back some to get it to unleash a large attack at the Ed. Once getting the energy needed to win this fight, the monster throws its fist down at the Ed boy, who has Joker's Wild ready for the attack.

And then: contact!

The sudden flow of power coming off of Joker's Wild knocked the outline back, sending the creature flying before crashing hard into the ground. Double D watched the monster recover from the blow and revert back into the Man in Shadows. With the outline defeated, the other Eds got through the wall and join up with their friend, embracing him before Double D broke them up and told them to stay. The smart Ed walked over to where the Man in Shadows is lying and recalls his Keyblades so he can talk to the fallen enemy.

"So… can you tell us anything about what lies ahead for us?" the smart Ed asked nicely.

There was silence amongst the four of them, with the outline glaring at them with the same hate-filled eyes. After a few seconds, the Man in Shadows began chuckling in a low tone before bursting into a full hysterical laughter, scaring all three boys. Once they regain their nerves, they listen to the outline laughing in a sort-of out-of-character moment for him. This was possibly their answer, they figured, before the man ceased his laughter and looked at the Eds with the same dead cold stare.

"Your fates are sealed, boys. Death is final, and soon yours will come."

With that final message out of his mouth, the Man in Shadows bursts into flames before fading into obscurity. The Eds took a moment to catch their breaths after spending what seems to be hours of fighting to enjoy the moment of silence. Unlike the other two fights, the spotlight is still on and the boys are enjoying being in the light. And then there's the time they're spending together after minutes of being apart. The Eds are glad that this is now over with… but their fight is far from finished.

"_All Have Been Defeated_."

"All right that means we're done!" proclaimed Eddy happily, throwing his hands up into the air.

"Eddy, I doubt this is the end," said Double D. "There's still the matter of finding Jib and stopping him."

"Oh yeah…" the small Ed added, his head tilting away from his friends. After a few seconds, he noticed that the others have the same look of fear in their eyes. "Hey, what did he mean by that? Does that mean we're going to die?"

"Well it's true that we're going to die eventually, but…" the medium Ed paused to think about to add. "It's vague, but it sounds like we might die sooner than we think."

"I don't want to go," Ed said softly.

"Same here Ed," Eddy added. "I really don't want things to end here."

All three Eds huddled together, embracing each other as they wait patiently for the next stage to happen. The darkness began to embrace them, blanketing them as they continue to hold on to each other, not knowing what is going to happen to them. They can feel like they're falling, going down a deep pit, and they can feel like they are being free from this black prison.

"_Now the Final Fight Shall Begin_…"

OOO

A gentle breeze can be felt along his skin. It certainly feels refreshing after his time in that dark prison. However there is the matter of the wind that is being rushed into his ears. It is getting rather annoying, like someone standing really close to him and blowing a steady constant breath of air. There is also the steady rolling surface underneath the boy, making him feel like he was out at sea instead of inside of an inescapable black hole. As much he wants to sleep, he can't enjoy the comfort with all of what is going on, especially when he is still in the middle of fighting.

Eddy got up from his slumber and sat upright with blurry eyes, seeing little beyond what he can make out. In front of him is Double D, sitting a little far away but he can't tell because of his distorted sight. To his side is Ed, with both him and his hat breathing meaning that their ally is back in action. And then there's the stinging sensation flowing down his spine… Eddy placed both of his hands behind him and start straightening himself out, trying to ease the pain.

"Seriously, why the back?" he grumbled. "I'm going to need a chiropractor if we get outta…"

The small Ed stopped his sentence when he noticed the atmosphere around the boys. His now clear eyes start to pick out the unusual swirls twisting and slithering around. Then there's the gentle rocking that is going on under the boy and he looks down to find that all three of them are sitting on top of a large dragon. From what Eddy can see, this dragon looks kinda similar to those he found in his history books, when he decided to skip through and look at the pictures, but its wings appear to be made out of paper instead of skin.

"Double D, where are we?!" he shouted. "And what are we doing on a back of a dragon!?"

The Keyblade bearer looked back at his awaked friend and inspect below him to see why his friend was acting as such. "Do you know that whistle Prankster gave us before our fight with Jib?" he asked, getting a nod from Eddy. "Apparently that whistle called this Heartless up and it's here to aid us through this part of the Void."

"But how can it do that when we're this far deep in the Void?"

"I guess it's interdimensional or something," Double D replied, taking the whistle out to examine. "I saw it coming out of a portal after a few seconds I blew the whistle. Once it spotted us, it saved us from our free-fall and for the past few minutes we've been traveling it's been pretty quiet."

Eddy took a few moments to process the information, grateful that it is peaceful where they're at, but there was one part of Double D's last line that stuck out to him. "Wait, we were falling!? Where did we come from?"

The smart Ed tried to answer his Defender friend, a small moan interrupted the boy and the two Eds looked over to find Ed getting up. The tall wizard slowly got up from his nap, his arms stretching out to loosen them up, and he opened his eyes to see where he is at. When his eyes trailed down to find he is sitting on top of a giant dragon, his typical large smile appeared on his face, making him very excited. "Cool, we're on a dragon!" the boy stated happily, his face glowing brightly.

The wizard hat sitting on Ed also got up from his slumber, his zipper mouth flapping open as if he was smacking his lips. His eyes were half open, heavy from the deep sleep, and he pretended the motion of wiping his face with a hand using the tip of the hat. "Ugh, I got to lay off the Elixirs…" Normadomus mumbled, sounding a little drowsy.

After a few seconds, the hat snapped out of his sleepy spell and begins taking note of his surroundings. When he noticed the black creature sitting underneath Ed and some of its features, fear began flowing through the hat. "W-W-Wha… What are we doing on the back of a Storm Rider?!" he shouted.

"Double D here called it up to save us from falling, using that whistle he got from that crazy Heartless," Eddy explained.

Normadomus eases a few of his nerves, but he still kept his guard up. "So, I guess this is our aid Prankster promised us," the hat commented. "Still, I'm a bit awry about a Heartless helping us. This could be a ruse created those two to help the Destroyer of Light get his hands on the Keyblade."

"I can assure you Normadomus this Heartless is friendly," said Double D, keeping his hands "We've been flying for minutes and not once has it done anything to harm us."

The hat once again eased up on some of his nerves, but he kept his guard for that small fear that his suspicions are true. The next few minutes the Eds are sitting there on top of the dragon, which the wizard hat calls Storm Rider, resting up in the quietness and enjoying their break from fighting. Ed and Eddy are on watch for Jib in case he does appear, while Double D is doing his best to control the dragon Heartless and preventing everyone from falling to their deaths. As they were waiting around for Jib to show up, something popped into Ed's head and he looks up to his hat to ask him something.

"So, what were you up to when we were out?" asked Ed.

Normadomus started thinking over what happened to him during his blackout. "I'm not really sure about it," he started, "I was in the middle of darkness and I was back in my human form, but I couldn't do a thing. Then I watch my current form appear before me and began mocking me for being stuck like this. However I found a way to overcome my paralysis and taught whoever who was mocking me that I can overcome being stuck in whatever predicament I'm in."

"We were in the middle of darkness ourselves," said Double D, "but we had the unfortunate pleasure of facing some tough adversaries in the darkness. … Well, I had to face off against the Man in Shadows."

"I'd faced off against the man from the General Store back in Traverse Town in his original form, but better off known as Gandolfini Birman," added Eddy. "I really didn't want to see his ugly mug again after what he did to all of us those years back."

"I was with Jib," was Ed's response. "I had a hard time beating him until Eddy came along, and I stopped Jib with a stick of butter."

The two saner characters look at the tall wizard, staring at his wide smile, surprised that he took Jib out with butter. Eddy helped prove it since he was there to witness it, and he couldn't believe it either. "It sounds like you boys went through a lot," said the hat. "Never once has anyone encountered the Destroyer of Light survived, and yet here we are talking about taking on beings as strong as and stronger than him."

"But is it compare to what we're about to do next?" said the medium Ed. "We're still in the middle of the fight between Jib and the added-on fights with these past, present and future enemies isn't helping us in terms of conserving what energy we have left to stop Jib."

"If anything, I can still back you boys until the end," said Normadomus, his mouth glowing green for the impending Cure spell. "I can still supply you Cures to help you defeat the

"And speaking of, how exactly are we going to stop him?" asked the small Ed.

"Well we know what Jib is weak to," Double D started. "The thing is that he's going to know it's going to come and he's going to have his defenses up. If Gravity, Water and Holy are the only things that he's weak against, we need to come up with strategies that he won't see coming."

"It's likely that he's going to counter everything we throw at him," said Ed's hat. "If we take into considering how long we were out, he might have time to recover his protective spell and might be onto future plans on knocking it out so we can land some hits."

"But like Double D said, can't we just mix things up to throw Jib off and hit him with all of his weaknesses?"

"It's likely, but again he is bound to counter them even if it's off the top of our heads. Unless there's that right combination of moves that can somehow disable that shield of his, then this fight will continue to be a curb stomp."

"_And it will be once I knock you boys deep into the darkness_!"

All of the boys and Ed's hat jump at the sudden appearance of the booming voice of Jib. The boys checked all around to see where he could be hiding, trying to look for signs of the singular floating being in tattered clothes. Their searching ended up fruitless, seeing only the changing atmosphere around them and nothing that constitutes life other than what they are on and themselves. After giving up, another outburst echoed from the Unversed, this time coming from above, and a shadow began casting over the Storm Rider.

The Eds look up to see what was casting the shadow, and all three boys and their companion froze in place. Right above them, they are staring at a hideous, distorted sculpture of a face, staring out into space with its soulless staring eyes and a smile bearing teeth a great white would be jealous of. Beyond its large head is an enormous base of a body, comprised of mainly shadows, but what stuck out was that there were buildings and parts of earth that was once Peach Creek, making the Eds sick to see their homes being used for Jib's perverse creation.

"_Like what I did to Peach Creek_?" the Unversed called out from somewhere on the creature. "_I tried to make a monster out of pure shadows, but I thought it'll be fun to watch your faces after seeing what I did to your precious town_."

"That… That's the monster we saw," said Normadomus, his whole being shaking with fear. "It… there's no way we can defeat that thing!"

"Majora's Hell…" the tall Ed muttered.

"Language, Ed!" stated Double D.

"Really Double D, are you calling Ed out on his language," asked Eddy. "There's a much bigger problem to deal with here!"

A flush of red appeared on the Keyblader's face after getting called out, and he focused his attention back up onto the giant shadow monster above the boys. "So, what exactly are we going to do about this?" he asked, hoping for someone to answer.

"Well I got two ideas," started Ed's hat. "One is to destroy the creature, thus taking down the Destroyer of Light, but it's far too big for any of us to take down alone. Option two is to defeat the Destroyer of Light, thus taking down the creature and ending this fight."

"I agree with the latter option," Double D answered, his eyes dancing about as he scanned the shadow monster. "From what I can get about this creature, it has a large amount of health just short of the Man in Shadows' health, so fighting it will be a bad idea."

"That's sounding like a miss opportunity there," said Eddy, getting his shield ready. "There were a few buildings that I want destroy, but taking of Jib sounds more important than some petty revenge."

"But isn't this revenge anyway?" Ed asked.

"Whatever this is, we have a mission ahead and we need to complete it before Jib can finish his," said the medium Ed with all determination, calling out both of his Keyblades to his side to get ready for the fight ahead.

Normadomus looks down and eyes the blue Keyblade that is in Double D's left hand. He is mesmerized by its appearance, amazed that such a beautiful weapon is in the boy's other hand. He is also surprised by the fact that the Ed is wielding another weapon. "Wha… Is that… another Keyblade?"

Double D takes his weapon and pulls it up to give Ed's hat a better look at it. "Oh yes, you weren't around to see that I acquired Wisdom's Glory," he replied. "I got this at a last minute moment in my fight against the Man in Shadows, and it helped me get defeat him."

As they were talking, the giant shadow monster began to form arms from its sides and had them ready for attacks. The newly formed hands begin creating some fireballs at its tips of its fingers, growing them bigger with each passing seconds. The Eds scrambled on the back of Storm Rider to not only brace themselves from impact, but to escape the large fireballs. Jib rings out his attack name, getting the shadow giant to raise its hands and toss the fireballs down onto the much smaller enemies.

The Keyblade wielder took his skills of driving and starts using them on the Heartless to maneuver the Eds out of the fiery storm raining down on them. Weaving through the ten purple fireballs, the Storm Rider skimmed pass each of the balls with inches to spare, leaving all three Eds and Normadomus to feel the heat radiating off the fireballs. Eventually all ten fireballs fell into the depths of darkness below all of them and the Heartless straightens itself out to allow everyone on board it to catch their breaths.

"You know what, how about I sit this final part out?" Normadomus offered, causing all three boys to react in shock.

"WHAT!?" barked Eddy. "You can't just jump outta this! Who's gonna heal us if we go done?!"

"Hey, I wasn't going to stop fighting all together! I was suggesting backing out of your fight with the Destroyer of Light since this is more of a personal affair that I'm being dragged into. And I'll be happy to assist you from atop Storm Rider and keep you boys safe."

Ed took off his hat and placed him to the side as all three boys took the moment to talk amongst themselves. Normadomus crept forward a bit to catch what was being said about him, with a few outbursts coming out of the small and tall Ed protesting having the hat at their sides. Double D did his best to persuade the two into leaving the hat behind, saying it is a good idea to allow the Eds to fight Jib on their own instead of relying on Normadomus' magic to save them, including mentioning their fights in the darkness. Once all three boys reached an agreement, they got back to the hat and helped carrying him over to the Heartless' head.

"OK Normadomus, we're going to let you stay here while we go fight Jib," said the smart Ed. "Will you be all right up here?"

"I should be fine here on Storm Rider Eddward," the hat responded. "Though I still doubt about it trusting us, I could probably use its wind magic to help you three safely down on the back of the giant and blow anything away on your way to fight the Destroyer of Light."

"If you can get us anywhere close to Jib, that'll be great," said Eddy, looking up at the giant to see what was going on up there. "I don't want to be running around on the back of that thing looking for Jib."

Now with a plan in action, all three Eds begin to set their plan into motion by getting Storm Rider up to the top of the giant. During their flight up, they can feel the air getting chiller and found some ice crystals forming mid-air. They figured Jib was making an ice spell to freeze the boys, so they hurried up getting up above the giant and escape the ice cloud. When they were out of the chill zone, they watch the crystals grow bigger before Jib called his attack, causing the crystals to shoot spikes from its surfaces and explode into several pieces.

The Eds once again breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that they are escaping these deadly one-hit spells. The boys look over the side of Storm Rider to notice that the surface of the giant has small plates of earth and streets covering most of its back, wondering if these surfaces are safe to walk on. "OK boys, Storm Rider and I are going to use our wind magic to guide you down onto the giant," the hat explained. "Once you get on the surface, you are on your own in stopping the Destroyer of Light while we'll cover the air in support."

All three Eds nod in agreement, and they got along the edge of the dragon in preparation for their descent down. Normadomus began collecting some gust in his mouth, getting enough that could help get the Eds down without turning them into pancakes, when he release his spell and shocking the Eds. Instead of creating a funnel of wind, the hat used his gust to push the Eds off of the dragon and down to their final fight.

During their fall, the Eds encounter various funnels forming a path down towards a large hump on the giant's back. The boys reached out to get into these gusts of wind to not only push them closer to wherever Jib is, but to prevent them from being a part of the shadow giant's skin. All three Eds enter their first funnel and exit as quickly as possible, launching them towards the next gust. From above, the hat watched the Eds continue to make their way down towards the surface, worried that his spell had pushed the Eds a little short of their intended spot, but is now relieved that they are on their way down.

"All right, let's see if I can control this thing…" Normadomus muttered to himself, getting up on top of Storm Rider's head in preparations of flying the Heartless.

As they are sailing down, the Eds noticed a few dark clouds forming around them and in some of them are a few bolts of lightning. Figuring that Jib is getting ready for another attack, the boys got their weapons out and ready to catch any lightning that would hit them, all while speeding through the funnels to get them closer to the hump. The lightning inside the clouds got bigger and bigger, along with shifting colors to a dark purple, and the Eds brace themselves for when Jib calls out his move.

The Unversed once again shouts out his attack's name, getting the clouds to unleash their bolts. The lightning streaks across the skies, flashing for several seconds as it reaches out towards the Eds and the flying Heartless. The boys got their weapons out and wait for the lightning to hit them and potentially use this for later attacks, but the funnels of wind pushed them away from the lightning, preventing it from frying the Eds and missing the chance of using Jib's move against him. For the Heartless, Normadomus and Storm Rider use their powers to push away from the reach of the lightning, getting some distance between them and the giant.

After a few minutes of falling, the Eds finally made it on the surface of the giant, landing close to the top of the humps. The Eds look towards the top to find that half of Double D's house is standing, along with some parts of Eddy and Ed's house standing to the sides of the Keyblader's house. Double D figured this must be because of the door that appeared before him, but they are a little confused as to why the houses are there in the first place. At best they agreed it could be a little symbolism towards their friendship with each other, but that's all they could figure.

The Eds made their way up to their homes, mainly focusing on Double D's house, and they noticed something inside of Double D's room. There is some sort of crystal-like substance encasing the room, save for a small patch towards the very back. In the middle of the room is a tall column made out the same crystals, appearing much darker in color and having someone or something resting inside of the

"_Hello again Ed boys_," the voice of Jib said in a chilling tone, "_ready to put an end to all of this_?"

The crystal column starts to open up, making the Ed boys jump back from the sudden opening. Two panels swing to the sides, revealing the shadow inside to be the Unversed himself, Jib. However unlike his previous form, he has reverted back to his more humanlike appearance, and he's naked inside of the chamber. Well the Eds can see everything from the waist up; there's some crystals covering Jib's legs so it was hard to tell if he is still wearing any clothes underneath. And he was resting inside of the crystal column like he was sleeping for a long time, despite the Eds knowing he was active in his attempts in killing the boys.

Jib leaned up and let out a slow breath, opening his purple eyes to look at the Eds standing before him. "So, you didn't answer what you think of what I did with Peach Creek," he answered casually, a wide smirk on his face. "Like the new look?"

"Why do you look like one of those guys from Sarah's mangas?" Ed asked randomly, scratching his head in confusion.

"Have you ever try to create a giant world destroying shadow creature like Olympus Cutter here and try to maintain its power by using yourself like a generator?" the Unversed asked, getting a blank reaction from all three Eds. "Thought so."

His eyes wandered down to where Double D's Keyblades are and he begins to glow brightly in excitement upon seeing Wisdom's Glory. A large smile appeared on his face and his eyes danced wildly, creeping the boys out. "That's it!" he shouted. "That's the Key of Light!

The Eds look at Double D's new Keyblade and they begin to wonder what was Jib was blabbing about. Even Double D is confused about the Unversed's sudden cry of realization. "This is it? I thought you said Joker's Wild was the Keyblade of Light?"

"Well when I knocked you three out, I picked the Keyblade up to see if it was, but sadly it's another Keyblade of Darkness," the Unversed responded. "But now that you finally have the true Key of Light in your hands, this makes killing you much more satisfying now that I'm moments away from achieving infinite power!"

"Not when we have a say in that!" shouted Eddy, getting his shield ready to punch at Jib.

The moment Eddy is about to throw his punch, he felt a blow hit him, knocking him back several feet to the curve down the hump. He slammed his shield's edge into the ground, catching him from slipping down and forcing him to climb back up. Once he recovered from his fall, he noticed Jib staring at him with a flat expression on his face, not caring about what just happened to the boy. "Really, you shouldn't be doing that in front of me," said Jib nonchalantly.

The others begin their attack as well, with Double D swinging both of his Keyblades and Ed getting a Thundara spell charging on his staff. Jib looks over to the two attacking Eds and prepares to swat the boys away, getting some wind to blow the Eds towards the charging Eddy. Double D fell for the spell and is sent flying back, while Ed used his weight and staff to ground him to his spot, all while his attack is being blown back. Using what energy he has, the tall wizard aims his staff at Jib point-blank, unleashing the lightning into the Unversed's face and body.

The others watch as Ed completes his spell and then get knock back by Jib, who appears to be unharmed by the tall Ed's magic. The Unversed picked his arms up and pressed them against the walls of his chamber, creating large crystal arms for him to use. With a smile on his face, Jib began creating more gusts of wind in his new created hands, and Double D got a Haste spell ready to use. Once the spell was ready, Jib throws his attack at the Eds, prompting all three to bolt towards the Unversed, phasing right through the wind spell.

Jib got his arms ready to grab the running boys, but his eyes can't keep up with them speeding around him. To stop them, he brought his arms forward and began concentrating hard, feeling the shadows underneath the fighters rising up. Shortly Jib called his attack once again, shouting for walls to appear, and he finally got the Eds where he wanted. All three found themselves stuck inside of the shadows, hitting them with full force, and they peeled away from the walls like the cartoon characters they are before straightening themselves out.

The Unversed let out a hearty laugh before continuing on with his attacks on the Eds. Getting the shadows he used for the walls, he used his crystal arms to motion the shadows surrounding the boys to form into a ring. Eddy told the others to duck as he got a yo-yo attach to his shield, telling the others that he was going to cut through the shadows. The others did what they were told and Eddy began his swinging, spinning around while slicing through the ring before his shield disappeared beyond the ring. He then heard the sound of clanging metal, meaning he hit the side of Jib's crystal column, and that somehow got the shadow ring to disperse.

Seeing an opportunity to strike, Double D and Ed got up from their spots and rush towards Jibs. The Keyblader crosses his weapons together, gathering some fire on the blade while Ed is charging up a Fira as well. Jib brought his arms forward and created a wall between him and the Eds, causing both boys to jump up and leap over the arms. The Unversed noticed this tactic and knocks the arms up, pushing the Eds back. In the air, Ed fires his spell through the open spot at Jib, but the Unversed stopped the fireball with one of his hands. Double D follows up Ed's attack with both of his fire spells, shooting Joker's Wild fireball ball first and getting that block before shooting Wisdom's Glory stream of fire and hitting Jib straight on.

As Jib is recovering from the blow, the small Ed noticed the small patch of crystal-free space on the back wall to find there's a door. He is surprised that this single door is free of Jib's crystal, wondering why it is so important to the Unversed. "Double D, what's that door behind Jib?" asked Eddy, whispering in his ear. "I don't remember seeing that when we were in your room."

"That's the door said to be the doorway to Kingdom Hearts," the medium Ed replied. "I'm not sure why it's in my room, but that's what I can remember from that hooded man way back before this all started."

The Unversed brushed off the fires dancing on his bodies, and he let out a snarl at the boys. He clasps his crystal hands together and brought them above him to only slam them into the ground. The shadows split open and form a rising wall out of the crack, hitting the Eds and knocking them high into the air. Jib lifts his hands off of the ground and got them ready for another ice spell, creating a chill zone around the Eds in hopes of freezing them in place. But when he is about to launch his attack, the Eds drop down to the ground, hitting the pavement hard thanks to the intervention of an Aeroga spell.

Jib looks up into the skies to find Storm Rider circling above the broad back of Olympus Cutter, with Normadomus a tiny speck on top of Heartless. The Unversed let out another snarl and throws out his hands to do another attack, this time the lightning storm he tried using on the Eds during their flight down. Noticing that Jib is going to strike down their aerial aid, Double D rush up to the Unversed with his Keyblades out and sparking with lightning, but Jib breaks away a hand to block the two weapons.

No matter what, the lightning spell kept on going, with the right hand being engulf in electricity. At its peak, Jib launch his attack, but it got intercepted by Eddy's shield flying up and catching the lightning before it can be used on the Storm Rider. Catching his electrified shield, the small Ed then tossed it behind him so he can swing the shield above him and right on top of Jib. Double D got out of the way of the incoming attack, making his distance as Jib tries to catch the shield and failing to stop it from hitting him. He took his attack at full force, feeling the surge flowing through him, and he shakes the electricity off as the Eds begin to recover.

"You know, for a guy who supposedly weak, he's got a lot of energy in him," Eddy commented, letting out a few huffs.

"I noticed," replied Double D, huffing as well. "He's using all that he has to stop us."

"Maybe some more butter could put an end to this?" Ed pitched, grabbing another stick of butter from his jacket.

"No Ed, we need to find a way to get at Jib and really hurt him," said the medium Ed. "If we can somehow turn his magic against him or get our magic strong enough, maybe we can exploit Jib's weaknesses and help us win this fight."

"You know, it would've been great if we have Ed's hat with us so he can use his Gravity magic on Jib," said Eddy.

"I think that even if he was here, that's not going to make a difference. If anything, we need to try to find a way to get us to use Water and see if I can learn Holy during this."

"Then you better start learning!" the small Ed stated, as all three dodged a large black wave rolling right at them.

All three boys watch the giant wave roll on down the hill, grateful that they missed that, when they notice that Jib is sending them several shadows waves to knock them back. The boys dodge each one of them, watching their movements carefully since each wave that passes is aiming at them no matter where they land. Several blades of wind from above, coming from Storm Rider, cut through the waves, helping to clearing a way for the Eds to get back up to Jib.

Jib is getting angry that the Eds still refuse to go down. He began to gather some energy and pump it down into the ground, causing some tremors. The Eds notice some bubbling right under the feet, each getting a feeling that there is something, or things, are going to pop out and attack them. When they got up to the Unversed, he shot his crystal arms forward and blast the Eds back with a strong gust of wind, knocking them off of the hump and on their way down.

As the Eds are hovering, they notice the columns that stopped them previously springing up from the ground and reaching for them. This time the columns turned into spikes, narrowing down to a fine point at their tips and spouting thorns for extra damage. The Eds freak out upon seeing the spikes heading towards them, when they felt another gust of wind pushing against them, this time coming from their aid in the sky. A loud shout of anger echoed from down below, and the boys can see Jib ratting inside of his chamber with fury.

The Unversed wasted no time preparing his attack, getting his lightning cloud brewing above the Eds and getting enough electricity to power a small city. Normadomus feared for the worst and shot his Aeroga to push the Eds closer to him, getting them on board of the dragon once again. As the aerial support got close to the flying Eds, Storm Rider took its wing and flap them down, blowing a gust strong enough to disperse the lightning cloud and stopping the attack.

During the rescue, the boys notice Olympus Cutter's arms are burning with the same fire from before. They realize that Jib is going to use the same attack, this time increasing the amount of fire, and he got the fire thrown up into the air and right towards the Heartless. Normadomus commanded Storm Rider to go up, getting the boys to fly up, as they all watch the fireballs head towards their general direction. Then the Heartless peaked before taking a dive back down, folding everything up to increase its speed and head right under where the fireballs are going.

Right above the Eds, the fireballs crash into each other and explode in a giant fiery storm. As Storm Rider folds and straightens itself back out, Jib got Olympus Cutter to create more pillars of shadows from its being. This time, the shadows begin forming into barrels to cannons, and the shadows lump together to form into a nine barrel super weapon. Jib fires his new weapons at the approaching Heartless, shooting off in rapid succession and leaving little room to move. Once again Storm Rider folds up to weave through the firestorm, passing through the shadowy bullet hell to make it back up to Jib.

With only feet separating them, the Unversed once again prepares for an attack. He pulls back an arm and throws it forward, punching the air. The Eds were confused about this strange attack when they noticed Jib's hand is now right in front of them. The hand latches onto Storm Rider, stopping it dead, and the Unversed starts lifting it up higher. The Eds figured out what Jib was going to do next and they managed to grab Ed's hat as they jump off of the doomed Heartless and land safely on the ground. The boys watch their ride get thrown off into the distance, heading off into the shadowy oblivion and leaving them stranded on the giant shadow monster.

"OK, I have had it with Jib!" stated Eddy angrily. "We need to give him one final attack that'll bring him down for good!"

"Hey Double D, why are you floating?" asked the tall Ed.

The others took notice that the medium Ed is not touching the ground. He is indeed floating only a few inches off of the ground, though why is unknown. Double D can feel a large surge of magical energy flowing through him now, wondering if this might be part of why he is floating. He looks at Wisdom's Glory and notices that it is glowing brightly with its variety of colors, feeling that he has unlocked its Limit Break.

"Gentlemen, you should probably stand back for this," he ordered, motioning the others to do. "I am about to unleash something powerful here…"

Giving his new Keyblade a good twirl, Double D rushes towards Jib while aiming Wisdom's Glory forward. He then begins feeling that surge of energy going into his Keyblade and finding his weapon coated in flames. These flames leapt off of the Keyblade and head towards Jib, hitting his protective arms while some lightning left the Keyblade as well. Double D notices that he is unleashing all of his spells at once, finding that ice crystals are forming around the Unversed and seeing that some light beams are hitting him as well. There's also the urge to run around, meaning the Ed is using Haste and this could be useful for the boy.

Getting annoyed by the puny magic spells pelleting him, Jib takes his hands and starts creating shadow columns to stop the Ed, both him and his spells. However with Double D's extra speed boost, the boy is weaving through the shadows with ease, the floating adding the benefit of no friction, and he continues to focus his aim at the Unversed to hopefully weaken to a certain point. With his annoyance reaching its tipping point, Jib calls off his attack and starts up another, this time pulling back his arms so he can punch the Ed.

Double D's attack continues on with no stop in sight, his spells increasing in strength as the time pass. Jib continues to take the hits, feeling his energy seeping out from the constant barrage of attacks and to feeding his attack, and he swung his arms forward to hopefully stop the Ed. The crystal arms rush towards the Ed with shadows caking the hands, and Double D pushed himself back to avoid whatever the Unversed was planning. He watch the shadow leap off of the fists and reach for the boy, but the magic coming off Wisdom's Glory blast through the shadows with ease.

The arms reeled back to Jib's side and the attack continues to pellet him, wearing him down even further. Down to his last few breaths, the Unversed took a fist and slammed it into the ground, creating a large wave to push Double D back. There was no way for the boy to avoid this, so he took this opportunity to ride back down to his friends, where they grab him from going all the way down the hump. Together again, the Eds look up to find Jib huffing and panting heavily, showing he is getting tired from wasting energy on these boys.

"We got him on the ropes!" stated Normadomus.

"All right, let's finish this!" shouted Eddy excitedly.

All three boys took off, heading right at Jib when he is busy recovering from the near fatal blow. The Eds got together and start forming into the giant ring they made back at Foster's, rolling all the way up the hump and jumping high before heading towards Jib's capsule. The Unversed raised his hands up and blocked the rolling Eds, although he notices the Eds are eating through the crystals, but barely. Jib pulls a hand back and punches the Eds away from him, knocking them out of their formation, but that wasn't going to stop them.

Eddy and Double D grabbed onto Ed and got him facing at Jib, before they heaved their friend down like a falling bomb. The Keyblader follows this up by freezing the air and encasing Eddy's shield, allowing the Ed to create an ice trail down to the ground. They watch Ed hit Jib's crystal hands, breaking through them with no problems, and he was thrown back into the air, passing by Eddy and Double D on their way down. The smart Ed was right behind Eddy, getting both of his Keyblades glowing with different spells.

Jib tries to salvage what he has left for his hands and knocks Eddy back into the air, who was grinning a devious smile like he wanted that. Then Double D presented himself in front of Jib, swinging Wisdom's Glory right at the Unversed, only for it to be blocked. However, this was a mere distraction, leaving Double D to rapidly zip past Jib and swinging both Keyblades, hitting him five times before appearing right above the man in the tube. Jib couldn't see what is above him, as the Keyblader heads back down and crosses his weapons to hit the top of the chamber, shattering it into pieces.

With Jib finally exposed from his chamber, all three Eds gather once again to perform another one of their moves. Instead of Eddy as the base, Double D is the one performing the move, with him using his Keyblades to allow the other Eds to grab onto. Jib watch in anger as the boys spin around in the air, getting the speed they need before launching Ed, Eddy and Double D in that order. First up is the tall wizard, with his staff sparking with his Thundara spell, and he slams the book end of his staff squarely on Jib's head.

Following Ed is the small Defender, with his shield forward and getting into a position where he is spinning like a drill. Jib raises his normal hands up to block the attack, but Eddy presses through and hits Jib with all he can. After digging through the Unversed, the small boy bounces off of his enemy, giving him a friendly taunt before the final blow. With the Eds getting out of the way, Jib focuses his attention on the falling Double D, giving him seconds to stop him before the boy can do whatever he is planning.

In a desperate attempt, Jib gathers the shadows around him and throws them at Double D, hoping he can stop him before he can land his blow. However Joker's Wild is glowing brightly and he counters the attack by slicing through the shadows, clearing the way for him. Joker's Wild continues to shine and the boy got closer and closer, leaving Jib with no room whatsoever to counter, and the others cheer on as their friend is about to finish all of this fighting.

"Oh s…"

With his final words, Jib takes all of Joker's Wild's shaft in the face, feeling the flow of power coming off of the Keyblade. A bright light started to cover the two, leaving the others out on what was happening, but they know who won the fight. The light dims and Double D leapt back towards the Eds, landing on his feet, and he recalls back his Keyblades as the others gang up on the boys and embrace him, celebrating a premature victory before realizing Jib is still alive.

Hearing the screaming agony coming out of the Unversed, the boys watch Ed's former friend struggle out of the tube and towards the Eds. Now they can see that the man is wearing pants, but that doesn't matter as Jib took one more step before collapsing onto the ground, his eyes devoid of life and his body motionless. Seconds went by, waiting to see if Jib is still alive, and the four of them once again celebrating that they finally stopped one of the known invincible beings in the universe. And once again their celebration stopped, this time from an unexpected shaking.

The Eds stumbled back from the sudden jolt, knocking them onto their behinds. All three got back up on their feet and looked around to see what was going on. When they looked towards the front, they noticed that Olympus Cutter is beginning to fail. From where they are at, they can see that it is slowly starting its descent into the darkness below, feeling that it could be minutes before they are swallowed up as well. And since Jib destroyed their only means of transportation, they are stranded on the falling giant heading to its death.

"So this is how it all ends?" asked Eddy. "We can't go out like this!"

"There's one way we can leave Eddy," said Double D, pointing towards his room.

The boys looked behind them and found the wooden door that was untouched by Jib is standing there, looking inviting to them. However there is no way for them to get inside since there is no handle or keyhole for them to use. The boys begin inspecting how they can open the door, while Ed looks at his former friend lying on the ground unconscious. He gives him a few taps with his staff, hearing his friends struggling to get the door open and Olympus Cutter sinking further into the darkness.

"But wait!" cried out Ed. "We can't leave Jib here!"

"Screw that Ed! What good is it if we bring him along?" stated the small Ed. "You saw what he was doing to us? What makes you think he will kiss and make up with us after the crap he put us through?"

"And besides, what if he's faking this?" added the smart Ed. "He could be luring us into a trap if Kingdom Hearts lies behind here!"

The tall Ed looks up at his hat and Normadomus is giving him the same look as his friends. Ed looks back down at Jib and is starting to feel remorse, feeling guilty that he had to stop the Unversed from completing his goals. "I'm sorry, but I can't leave him behind!" he stated. "He's my friend, no matter how evil he is!"

The two rational Eds look at each other and huddled together to discuss a negotiation. The conversation was short, but they know that Ed will be determined to do anything to help out his former friend. "Fine, go ahead!" Eddy stated. "It's our funeral if he wakes up."

His typical smile appeared on his face as Ed lifted the unconscious Unversed off the ground and swung him on his shoulders. The giant shook again, once again knocking the boys down, and they look out to find that Olympus Cutter is going down faster, meaning that they need to get moving. The four of them focus on the door, realizing that they have to go through it, even if there's no way for them to get through. It is now or never; either they go down into the darkness or head through a door leading to an unknown room.

"All right… let's save our home."

A small burst of light appeared on the wooden door, forming the shape of a keyhole. Once the light disperse, Double D looked at the hole and began to think what this means. With the monster getting closer to being completely destroyed, the Ed raises Joker's Wild up to the door, follow by Wisdom's Glory, and both Keyblades shot a beam of light into the keyhole to unlock the door. When the boys hear the sound of clicking, they walk up to the door and push it open, pushing the wooden door in to find a room of bright light.

Now with only a few seconds to spare, the Eds and Normadomus make their way into the room single filed. With Double D taking the lead and Ed trailing behind, they leave behind the decaying monster for whatever is waiting behind this mysterious door. With all of them inside of the room, the door shut behind them, sealing them inside as the door begins to fade into oblivion…

OOO

**End of Act IV**

* * *

Limit Break(s) introduced:

_Magician's Spellbook_ – a continuous stream of magic-based attacks coming from the Keyblade if Wisdom's Glory is set. Once active, the attack will use every offensive spell the user knows and deals damage for a limited time.

OOO

Yes, it has finally ended… no, wait.

Finally after some major hiccups along the way and a period of suffering from writing blocks (I had the ideas in my head but I either can't get them on paper or I was distracted, mainly the latter), the final battle has come and pass! But much like the first game, this is just the tipping point. There's still that Epilogue I have…

But enough about that, let's talk about the chapter itself. For the first half… did I just go Meta on this? Anyway, I wanted to do something similar before the final fight where Sora was wandering around in the darkness fighting Shadows while gaining Goofy and Donald after the trio split up. Here I got an idea that the Eds face off against who I consider the _EEnE Project_'s Vile Trio, even though I don't have the right order for the Eds in terms of which Ed is the main Ed (by that I mean _Deadlocked_ had Eddy, here is Double D, and _Meister Within_ is Ed).

And I find it funny that some people believe that the Man in Shadows is the Bigger Bad in this whole project. Well, once I get back into _Meister Within_, we'll see whether or not this little note is true or not.

And now there's the final sequence, where we partake in the final stage and we fight the giant World's End and the Darkness Seeker Ansem. For my original idea for the sequel, I did want to use "Majora's Hell" as a fourth and final stage boss fight that I also wanted to incorporate a chase scene with a song backing it up. Sadly I am going to save that song for later, but here I got a chance to do the version of "Hell" here and do something a little different from the final boss fight in the game.

And I want to say: I know that the Asylum (if you are unfamiliar with this studio, watch the Syfy channel for any stupid sounding movies) made a rip-off movie of the _Transformers_ and called it _Transmorphers_, I still claim my idea as original. Also I think Ed might like _Red Dwarf_, _Blake's 7_, and I wonder which Doctor Ed likes (probably the Fourth).

So for now, I would like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next: the Epilogue and what lies behind this story's Door to Darkness!


	29. Epilogue: Kingdom Hearts

Legal Notes: **I **_**DO NOT**_** own **_**Ed, Edd n Eddy**_** or **_**Kingdom Hearts**_**, or any other references. The Ed boys and the cul-de-sac children are owned by Danny Antonucci and AKA Cartoons, and the world, weapons, currency and characters of the **_**Kingdom Hearts**_** universe are owned by Square Enix and Disney, while everything else is copyrighted by their respective creators. Any original content is credited by me, Cory of PRIVATE Corp, or any guest creator.**

* * *

Epilogue: The Door to the End

OOO

There are no words to describe what the Eds are seeing.

The Ed boys are walking on a mysterious surface, unclear if they are floating on space or the floor underneath is obscured by something. In fact, the very space the boys are walking in is lacking in details. There's nothing really there to note other than it is all white. It's a stark contrast during their time out in the plain known as the Realm of Darkness, so seeing some white is very refreshing to the boys, although the amount of it could be tone down a bit. Still, they are happy that they are in this room, but that's not the only thing they are excited about.

Before them is the very thing that is talked about in legends and was previously depicted on a painting. Standing before the Eds is a silver door frame, reaching up tall to the heavens if there is a heaven, and decorated with lavish embroidery and decals. The doors themselves are made as elegantly as their doorframe, made out of a wooden that has shown no signs of aging, and one keyhole on each door. The Eds studied each and every last detail that is before them, taking in the beauty of what is guarding one of the universe's greatest secrets.

They finally made it to the utopia, the haven for all hearts: Kingdom Hearts.

"Well here we are," said the small Ed, a small smile on his face. "We're the first people to ever reach Kingdom Hearts. Whoever thought that it was in Double D's room all this time?"

"I for one never thought that," said Normadomus, awed by his surroundings. "To think that a link to the most powerful source in our universe was inside of your homes…"

"Yes, but I rather not allow people to know that the gateway to Kingdom Hearts is in my room," said Double D, a little distrusted. "Considering all that we been through, I don't want people to come by and coming here to exploit unlimited power."

"And speaking of unnecessary people, Ed… drop Jib," Eddy ordered, giving the tall wizard a stink look.

The tall Ed did what he was told and let the unconscious Unversed drop to the ground, letting him tumble down like a ragdoll. All three Eds got close to the door, wondering how they are going to open the doors. None of them are concern about Jib lying there in his current position, since none of them are interested in him at the moment, and he was only there because Ed has a soft spot for him. For now, the Unversed is lying on the ground, waiting for something to happen with the Eds.

"So Normadomus, what was this X-Blade you were previously talking about," asked Double D. "What does it has in connection to Kingdom Hearts?"

"From what I can remember, the X-Blade is a special Keyblade forged from two different Kingdom Keys, one of Light and one of Darkness," the hat explained. "Thing is, some people believe that any regular Keyblade would open up the doors, but since there are no records to back this up, we have to deal with legends."

"And what if you said to Jib is true and we do need this X-Blade to open the doors," said Eddy, "then what?"

"Look Eddy, I was rambling to the Destroyer of Light. For all we know, the X-Blade could fail and that could lead to the Destroyer to awake. And then we'll be stuck here since our way back is gone and we're stuck in this world."

"Well there are two keyholes here, so using one Keyblade to open both would be rather difficult to do," the smart Ed noted.

The hat gives the boys a shrug as the four of them continue on with their investigation. As they are studying, a small burst of laughter startled them and sent a chilling sensation down their spine. They know none of them laugh like that, so they turn around to find that their unwanted guest is getting up from what otherwise would have been a lethal attack combination. All four of them are surprised that the Unversed is getting up from something like their attack, and they are beginning to regret making the decision on bringing him here.

"See Ed, I told you bringing him here was a bad idea!" Eddy growled at Ed.

"I'm sorry! I didn't want Jib to die out there!" the tall Ed protested.

Jib slowly got up from his spot and he spun around on his heels to face the Eds. His face is dark, almost devoid of emotions, but there is a smile on his face… a smile that is creeping the boys out. Jib looks up at what is behind the boys and that smile of his got bigger upon realizing what it is, and his laughter increase in volume, really startling the boys. The Unversed continued on with his maniacal laughter for a minute, his eyes fixated on the large doors to Kingdom Hearts, and he took a deep breath in to help calm him down.

"Finally… it's all right before me!" the man stated hysterically. "Kingdom Hearts… the legends are true! And it's standing right before me!"

"Hold it Jib!" stated Ed, getting his staff ready while Normadomus has his mouth glowing with a Blizzard spell.

"What makes you think you're going to get into Kingdom Hearts?" stated Eddy, arming himself with his shield while Double D calls his two Keyblades to his side. "We beat you fairly and we were going to let you die in the darkness! Now you're going to die for good!"

The Unversed pans down to focus on the armed boys, letting out a small chuckle at their bravery. "Oh, you let me live?" he asked, with some passive aggression in his voice. "That's so nice of you. It's too bad that you three have to die now…"

A spontaneous burst of energy flared out of the Unversed and he charges right at the Eds, creating some shadows from his being to grab onto them and launching them back. All three boys crash onto the ground hard, recovering quickly and getting ready for a fight when they find Jib is busy at the front of the doors. He is standing there, gleefully muttering to himself, which is creeping the Eds even further with his actions and words that are coming out of his mouth.

"Quick question, but did any of you hit him hard enough to make him delusional?" asked Normadomus.

"I think he's already like that," Eddy commented.

"What's that about me being delusional?" Jib asked, turning his back to face the Eds. "Are you saying that what I'm about to do is impossible."

"It's impossible at the moment," said Double D. "We're not certain on how we're going

"Oh, I know how I'm going to open the doors, and I'm going to take the key of light out of your cold dead hands, Double D. Once I do, it is only a matter of time for me to forge the X-Blade… and then I'm going to take every last heart that's waiting behind these doors for myself."

"But you're the Destroyer of Light, right?" the tall Ed noted. "Isn't Kingdom Hearts Light?

"I don't care Ed! Kingdom Hearts is all _mine_!"

Jib stretches a hand out at Double D and tries to use whatever shadows he has left on the Ed. The smart Ed flinches, expecting the worst, but after seconds pass he remained put. The boys look at their attacker and wonder why he was just standing, doing absolutely nothing while he is reaching out to the boys. Even Jib is wondering why he wasn't moving at all, only stuck in his current position. He tried taking a step forward, but a strange pain overtook the being and he dropped to the floor almost similar to being dropped by Ed.

The Eds try helping out Jib, but they stop in their tracks when they watch the Unversed continue to struggle with pain. Jib is screaming loudly, sweating coldly and his whole body is shaking violently, while parts of him are steaming with smoke. The boys watch in fear as Jib is doing everything he can to move, but each move that he makes is driving him down into the ground. His screaming is hurting the boys' ears, crying out in agonizing pain as the Unversed feels something boiling inside of him.

"_What have you done with yourself_?" a deep booming voice called out. "_You dare call yourself a Destroyer? You could not take care of these lowlife insects before you and you are now crawling to _my_ desire in a last attempt at redemption?"_

"Please… forgive me Creator!" the Unversed screamed. "I… I really don't intend to claim Kingdom Hearts for myself!"

"_You are a terrible liar, Unversed! I knew you will claim Kingdom Hearts for yourself the moment I assigned you this task. What makes you think you are worthy of such power_?"

Jib is looking more frightened by the second, trying everything he can to please whoever is talking to him. However with each attempts to get up, he is thrown back down by the unknown source, pushing him down to the ground while his whole being continues to shake. "_Even if these fools left you to die out there, you will die no matter for your failures. You are worthless to me, Unversed! Die, you failed_…"

Jib looks up at the Eds with a horrified look on his face, fearing the worst has finally come for him. The Unversed expected for one of the boys to help him, but not even Ed could make the effort to save him. The Eds stood there, watching everything as Jib begins turn black and rise up from his spot. Jib's body begins to contort and expand rapidly, looking like he is going to explode or something. Well, his body does collapse on him, crushing everything that made up the Unversed to a small ball before popping in a fiery red burst of energy. When the ordeal was over, the boys notice a small column of smoke in the shape of a tall figure, with broad shoulders, four horns and a flaming head before fading away.

"Wha… what was that?" asked Double D.

"That… was _the_ Destroyer," Normadomus said flatly. "That smoke that we saw was the Destroyer himself…"

"Man, we're boned," Eddy commented.

"Eh, that was rather disappointing," Ed noted, appearing less concerned about what just happened.

Once everything settled down, the Eds notice that the doors are cracked open and they rush over to see what is waiting for them. They were wondering how did the doors open in the first place, but they are eager to see what kind of mysteries are lying in Kingdom Hearts. When they got to the doors, all three boys start pulling the doors out more, with Double D and Eddy get one side and Ed the other. They pulled the doors open far enough to allow all three to enter safely, and once they got them to where they wanted, they rush to the opening to see what is waiting inside.

Instead of what they were expecting, waiting for them on the other side of the doors is a world full of darkness. Inside are several pureblood Heartless roaming around, filled with Shadows and their taller brothers, Darksides and Dark Followers, and Darkballs floating around and eating whatever they can get their mouths on. There are some paths leading into this dark world, but the Eds refuse to step forward, fearing what could happen if they venture inside. They stood there in awe, disappointed that their journey led them all this way to end like this.

"So this is Kingdom Hearts?" Double D questioned. "The one everybody kept talking about infinite power? It's infested with Heartless."

"A place known as the haven of hearts, filled with pureblood Heartless," Ed's hat commented darkly. "For all that has been told about this fabled kingdom, it's just part of the same corruption as everything in the universe. At least if we get out of here, maybe this will sway people away from setting foot here again."

A few Neoshadows scurry on pass the doors, and they look out to find the boys standing there, looking on at the beautified mess inside Kingdom Hearts. The Heartless took the opportunity to lunge at the Eds and get a fresh meal, but the Eds arm themselves for the fight. However, the Neoshadows disappear into a flash of light, surprising the boys from the unexpected burst. That attack cause the rest of Kingdom Hearts to turn towards the Eds, even though they had nothing to do with the attack. The Eds turn around behind them to see where the attack came from, noticing two figures approaching them.

Coming up to them are two young men dressed for travel, and the Eds immediately recognize who they are. On the Eds' left is a brunet dressed in a red shirt with a black front, long black pants, a black duster, and a pair of steampunk-style goggles resting above his green eyes. To the brunet's left is a young man a little taller than him and his appearance resembles more of a regular skunk, with the black hair and white streaks, black shirt with white zigzags, brown pants with white trimmings, and a plain black leather jacket to round him out. The two newcomers walk up to the Eds and they gave the boys a friendly smile, even though the Eds are too shock by their sudden appearance.

"What's up, guys?" the brunet asked, raising a hand to wave. "It looks like you three need some help."

The Eds can't believe what they are seeing. Standing before them are the grown kings of the Platinum and United Kingdoms, the very kings that they were looking for and were previously helping the boys out. Now standing right before the Eds with a warm look on their faces, the kings present themselves in a casual way, despite the growing danger behind the Eds. Eddy begins to feel his anger spiking and is ready to latch out at the two kings, but the others intervene to prevent him from harming the young men.

"You… where the hell were you two!?" he shrieked. "We could've used your assistances in the fight against Jib! He was beating the living crap outta of us, and you two were nowhere in sight!"

"We got lost," was the skunk boy's response. "It took us forever to follow you three here, especially with the paths getting destroyed and all."

"Well we're grateful that you two are here and all," said Double D, "but doesn't this seem late to the game?"

The two kings look at each other, wondering how they could answer that question. They shrug it off as they got closer to the Eds and begin making their way up to the opening. "But since we're here, we might as well do you guys one more favor," said the brunet, calling forth his Keyblade.

"We're going to go into Kingdom Hearts and restoring all of the lost worlds, hopefully getting them back to their original conditions before the Destroyer and Father came along and destroyed them."

"That's crazy!" stated all three Eds in unison. "Do you really think that you two could do such a feat?" asked Double D.

"There's a reason why we're known as Creators," the brunet laughed. "Now when we say so, you three are going to close the doors on us and we're going to work our magic inside."

The Eds look at each other, wondering if they should go along with the kings' crazy scheme. To while they want to return home after all they went through, there are the odds of them being stuck in this world while the kings die a painful death by the Heartless. Of course they figured the kings made it this far, and they really want to go home, so the boys gave a firm nod to the older teens to their plan. The kings told them to get to the doors, waiting by them as the two young men make their way into the Heartless infested world waiting for them.

"But how are you going to get out?" the tall Ed asked.

The kings look at each other once again, each knowing what the other was thinking, and they turn around to give the Eds a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about that," said the skunk boy. "If anything works out in the end, we should be back home with our families and friends."

The brunet king shouts out the orders to shut the doors and the Eds start pushing, using all of their strength to push the heavy doors closed. The kings focus back on the Heartless staring at them and they got their Keyblades out and ready, preparing themselves for the fight, while the Eds only watch the two men head on into the darkness. The boys eventually got the doors close, shutting the kings inside and letting deal with the dangers, and they step back away from the doors to allow the kings to do their things.

Now trapped in the room of light, the Eds start wandering about and wait for something to happen. Double D got the previous feeling of a keyhole nearby, and he looks behind at the doors to Kingdom Hearts, getting the urge to do what he has done several times before. With Keyblades in hand, the medium Ed swings both weapons about before aiming them at the two keyholes, getting them perfectly aligned to lock the doors. The others watch as the beams of light enter the holes, hearing the familiar clicking, and now the boys can reflect on what they are going to do next.

"There go the two bravest idiot kings the universe has ever seen," said Normadomus. He tightens himself down on Ed's head, while thinking back on what one of the kings said. "He said Creator… I hadn't heard that title in such a long time…"

"So now what?" asked the small Ed. "This really can't be the end for all of us…?"

"I thought that we are getting another story after this?" Ed asked randomly.

Before any of the others could answer, there was a sudden rocking in the room, knocking all three Eds onto the ground once again. However the rumbling kept on going, this time shaking everything in very short bursts. "Yeesh, what is it with these sudden bursts?"

"This must be the kings' doing," said Normadomus. As the seconds pass, the hat begins to realize what is going on and his face starts to show signs of worry. "Oh… Eds, we better get moving!" he stated hesitantly.

"Why?" asked all three boys at once.

"Because if what those kings are doing is working, then we shouldn't be standing around here for much longer!"

"But isn't that a good thing?" asked Double D. "We're heading back home! If this is something like what happened with our trips to the Land that Was Forgotten, then we'll be sent back to our home through that!"

"How can you explain that?" asked Eddy, pointing towards the doors.

The boys look behind them and notice that the floor between them and the door is giving away, revealing the Realm of Darkness underneath. The Eds start to panic, noticing that the opening gap is getting close to them, and they begin running away from the gap to prevent falling into oblivion. However it feels like they are running in an illusion, running place as the doors to Kingdom Hearts fade into the distance behind them and the gap expands outwards. No matter how far the Eds run, there is nothing for them out in the white world, making them fear they are going to end up dying instead of heading home.

In front of the Eds started to break apart and fall into the darkness as well, cutting them off their paths and leaving them trap on a strinking platform. As the floor continues to slowly disappear, the sound of roaring thrusters begin to fill the air and the Eds took a look around to see where it was coming from. The boys look up and notice a Gummi ship up in the air, heading right towards them. This Gummi ship is different from the ones the Eds saw on their journey and they noticed the royal seal on the hull, making this the kings' means of transportation. But instead of getting right up to the Eds, the ship begins to slow down and stalls mid-flight, preventing it from getting close to the Eds.

All three boys and Normadomus lets out a groan in desperation upon seeing their rescue stalling in the air, but they notice the ship turning around to reveal its back hatch to them. The door opens up and on the inside are the children of the cul-de-sac, but the Eds notice that Mark and Marie are standing out on the hatch and reaching out to the boys. The Eds are confused as to why all of them are here, especially in the kings' Gummi ship. "Hey guys, need a lift?" asked the teen, smiling brightly at the boys.

"What the…? What are you guys doing out here!" shouted the small Ed. "How did you guys get out here?

"There's no time!" stated Marie. "Get into the ship! We'll explain everything!"

The three Eds look at each other and begin to think of something that they can do to get onboard of the Gummi ship. After some discussion, they settle on a plan and they start to get it into motion. Normadomus sets up his Aeroga spell and chains a trail of mini tornados for the boys to use up to the Gummi ship. Double D took the lead and jump into the first funnel, launching him forward and up with ease. Eddy takes the next spot, following his friend in the exact manner, leaving Ed to take the end.

All three Eds leap through the tornadoes with ease, launching to the next one in seconds on their way to the Gummi ship. Double D made his way up to the open hatch, finding Marie waiting for him with an arm stretched out to pull him in. The Ed did so as well, reaching out to grab onto the blue-haired girl and join safety, but their reach is short and Double D begins to fall down into the darkness. Eddy grabbed one of his yo-yos and tossed it down at Double D, wrapping around the Ed and stopping his fall.

"Oh no, I'm not going to let you fall!" Eddy grunted through his teeth, struggling to get the Keyblader up. "We're gonna get on that Gummi ship even if it kills us!"

"Eddy, something is preventing us from getting us on that ship!" stated Double D. "If there's a force preventing the Gummi ship from getting to us, then that same force is not going to let us on no matter what we do!"

"Like destiny's gonna stop us!" the small Ed barked, taking his yo-yo and starts swinging the medium Ed.

Eddy got everything he has in him to toss Double D over onto the Gummi ship, swinging the boy back and forth before giving one good heave forward. The smart Ed launches forward and up to the open door, but once again he fails to get close and head back down into the darkness. Eddy tries to catch him again, but the wind holding the boy up disperses and he starts falling as well. Ed is left floating, with his hat doing everything he can to prevent the boys falling to their deaths, but no avail.

Everyone on the Gummi ship watch as the third Ed begins his descent into the darkness, joining alongside his friends. The ones on the door reach down and cried out to the Eds, in an attempt that they might come back, it was futile. The Eds watch the Gummi ship get farther and farther away as they fall, all three close to each other, and they can feel the wind rushing by them. Eventually the world around them shifted to a world of blackness, removing all sense of color in exchange for one shade of black.

"Like it how it all started, we end falling into the darkness," said the smart Ed, sounding a bit dark. "This is how our journey to Kingdom Hearts come to its conclusion…"

"Well, if we die, at least we have each other!" the small Ed stated, grabbing onto Double D's shoulders. "Just because this will be our final moments here doesn't mean we should end on a sad note."

"Friends until the end!" stated Ed with a wide smile on his face, embracing his friends in a bear hug.

Their urges to break free from Ed's hug is getting to them, but they enjoy the tall boy's embrace as they continue on down into the darkness. This is feeling much like their escape from Jib's personal darkness, but this feels like an eternity to the boys. As they are falling, the boys can feel something light inside of them, and they can feel themselves slowing down as they broke apart and continue on with their descent. Even Normadomus lifted off of Ed's head as the four depart and head deeper into the darkness, with all four of them looking at each other, for the last time, drifting off into unknown territories.

And in the end, there was only blackness.

OOO

He felt like he could sleep in all day. All he could think of is how tired he is and he doesn't want to get out of his bed. His blanket has gotten washed recently and feels so good, snuggling him in on the mattress below. His pillow is fluffed to meet his needs, resting his head softly out in the cold air. Everything is perfect for him to sleep the morning away, and there is nothing that is preventing him from getting the Z's he needs for…

Something's not right here.

Double D leapt from his covers and has his eyes wide open to see where he is at. To his surprise, he is back in his own room, completely untouched. Every angle he looks at, he sees every aspect that makes up the boy's room is there in their proper place, including the labels he placed on them. The Ed gave few quick rubs of his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things and one another sweep confirms that he is seeing his room.

The boy crawls out from his covers and takes a step onto the cold floor, feeling it for the first time in such a long time. Feeling the cold surface with his bare feet, Double D takes his first few steps out of bed and explore around his room to get a feel if everything is real and not an illusion. He looks out his window and notices that, instead of a fall landscape, the trees are decorated with fresh green leaves, showing that spring has arrive and months have pass since that day. Double D can't believe that they were gone for so long, but it felt like they did spent that long on their journey.

Getting down in his seat at his desk, the Ed flips on his desk light and takes a look at the items that he left on his desk before everything happened that day. Everything that he has arranged out on his desk is still there, resting in their previous position as if they were completely untouched by the destruction of Peach Creek. It's strange that everything is still the same after so many months of in the darkness, but the Eds is grateful that he is back in his own room and enjoying the peace being given to him.

"Well, we made it home guys," said the Ed quietly. "We are the first to find Kingdom Hearts…"

A spark of pain hit Double D's head, and he looks onto his desk to find a pink gem resting next to some books. The boy recognized the gem and he picks it up to inspect it. Much like everything else in the room, this rock is left untouched by the destruction and he can feel the energy emitting from it was the same when he last touched it. The pain continues to pulse in his head and he spins the rock between his fingers, wondering why such a tiny gen is giving him a headache.

"You… you are annoying," the boy commented. "No matter what I do to look into what you are, I can't find anything! And then I get these headaches when I'm around you…"

Another jolt enters his head, causing Double D to groan in pain. Getting fed up, the smart Ed got up from his seat and heads over to his window to open it. Once open, the boy got the gem ready and he gave one good toss, sending the pink gem flying over his backyard. Surprisingly, he didn't expect it to go sailing across the sky; maybe hoping to land on the other side of his fence, but it is gone now. With the pesky gem out of his grasp, Double D shut his window and went back to his desk, sitting down in his chair and enjoying the quiet once again.

The pink gem sails across the sky, heading away from the cul-de-sac of Peach Creek and venturing out into the unknown. Its flight came to an end after a few seconds, landing softly in some grass on top of a hill. The gem got itself exposed out in the open, waiting there patiently for someone to come along and find it to pick it up. As it was, a man dressed in blue comes walking up on the hill, looking out in the directions of the house, when his eyes trail down to find the pink gem resting in the grass.

"Ah, am I happy to see you again!" stated the man ecstatically. "I was looking all over for you! I'm glad you finally shown up here."

The man took the pink gem and placed it onto a ring, fitting it nicely in place so it wouldn't fall out. With the jewel back in its proper place, the man looks towards the direction of the homes and gives a small smile towards them. He looks towards where the sun is rising, finding the glowing ball of flames slowing crawling its way across the sky. As he is watching, the man takes the hat that is hanging off of his neck and placed it on top of his silver hair, getting the floppy blue hat snug on his head before making his way back.

The man lets out a little laugh as he carries on his merry way, grateful for all of the events that happened to him, and to three very special boys.

* * *

… So how many were you expecting that ending?

So at long last, the journey into this sequel to _Deadlocked_ has finally reached its end and now it's time for me to continue on with my other stories that I am long overdue to finish and empty up my plate. I can say that when I was working on this, I had the time of my life creating these situations and coming up with new plots that will, eventually, lead to the _Project_'s epic conclusion.

Now this is, of course, the final few moments of the game, where we get to see what Kingdom Hearts really is and also the defeat of Ansem's Heartless, and also we get to see Mickey and Riku for the final time… at least in the first game. Now since it's been a long time since I last worked on this, my appearance has change and I haven't got the chance to talk to Josh about anything, so I wasn't too certain on what I wanted to do with him. So I went with my new look and gave my friend something based on the last thing I remember him for (he has/had a thing for skunks) and I'm going for it. Hopefully if he's still reading this, then I hope he likes my new changes.

Anyway, how many of you expected me to do the "Kingdom Hearts is Light" bit? Well I was going to do the line with a new twist, but since that has been done so many times, why not I do something a little different? Since I made Jib a creation of Aku, I felt like Aku could deliver the final blow. Hey, it's not like _he_'s the one controlling everything up to this point… *whistling*

So for now, I would like for you to review, thank you very much. Up next: … Well, we'll see about that.


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